My Take – AP Photo of Fatally Wounded Marine
Sep 4th, 2009 by Shaun Carter
I am not surprised by the hypocritical position of Defense Secretary Robert Gates forcefully asking that the AP not publish a photo of a fatally wounded Marine in Afghanistan. Why is it ok for the news media to take pictures of dead, maimed, and disfigured Afghanis and Iraqis and publish those photos without objection, but it’s not acceptable for the same type of picture to be published when the person is American? Who is there to stand up for the foreign victims of war whose friends and family’s bodies are broadcast on the news and in papers across the world?
I think the AP has every right to publish these photos and they should. Why is the Defense Secretary not defending the thousands of innocent bystanders whose dead bodies have been in the news countless times since the start of hostilities in the region. This double standard is bullshit and either all pictures of death should be banned in the media or freedom of the press should continue unaltered, I choose the latter.
Technorati Tags: Afghanistan, marine, war, robert gates, secretary of defense, associated press
