NYT Publishes Images of Dying US Soldier

HT to Malkin and LGF
A photograph and videotape of a Texas soldier dying in Iraq published by the New York Times have triggered anger from his relatives and Army colleagues and revived a long-standing debate about which images of war are proper to show.
Well, that debate may have been revived, but any debate about whether NYT journalists are honorable people has been resolved forever.
The journalists involved, Times reporter Damien Cave and Getty Images photographer Robert Nickelsberg, working for the Times, had their status as so-called embedded journalists suspended Tuesday by the Army corps in Baghdad, military officials said, because they violated a signed agreement not to publish photos or video of any wounded soldiers without official consent.
Inflicting pain on miltary families isn't enough to get your card pulled.. You gotta violate a written agreement.
New York Times foreign editor Susan Chira said Tuesday night that the newspaper initially did not contact the family of Army Staff Sgt. Hector Leija about the images because of a specific request from the Army to avoid such a direct contact.
"And we at the NYT always honor specific requests from the Army."
"The Times is extremely sensitive to the loss suffered by families when loved ones are killed in Iraq," Chira said. "We have tried to write about the inevitable loss with extreme compassion."
I didn't think "extreme compassion" and "unrestrained glee" were compatible emotions, but I guess I don't understand the subtleties of journalism.
Posted by: Matt 2007-02-02 |