Why not show the bodies?

[oybolshoi]

While the Civil War battlefield photographs are gruesome, they don't have the same emotional impact well over 100 years later, as pictures taken of a current tragedy. I think that there will be more than enough photographic evidence of this disaster for history to record that this was a national tragedy..

I actually think those photographs have a tremendous emotional impact today, in part because they haven't been sanitized. I agree that there has got to be miles of footage, both video and photographic, that we haven't seen and might never see. I remember last week the photographer from nbc...Carl Quintanlla or something like that... and he said that quite a bit of the footage he shot at the convention center was just too graphic to be shown, even on the cable news outlets. It probably was, but it was those images that fueled the outrage over what was happening at the dome and the convention center. In my mind, showing the body bags being delivered to the morgues and refrigeration trucks only reinforces the outrage.

 

[phorsenuf]

I really have no strong position on this either way, but do you really think that the evacuees are watching the continuing coverage of this? I would think not in light that it would be hard to watch period whether they show bodies or not.


If you just went through such a tragedy would you be watching all the coverage? I know I wouldn't. I certainly wouldn't want to relive it over and over.

 

[DawnCt1]

So then you'd have no problem plastering pictures or video footage of executed criminals all over the media? After all, they are guilty, too.

There was as much justification for the gruesome pictures of Saddam's son's mangled bodies being shown as there was for the pictures of Saddam in his briefs. It's just sensationalistic journalism at its worst.

I do have a problem with executed criminals being shown in the media, without a doubt, but I can certainly see the usefulness of showing the bodies of Uday and Qusay during war time. It is evidence to those that support them that they are dead, so they may as well surrender. It is evidence to those that fear them that they are dead, so they no longer have to fear that they will return to power. The picture of Saddam in his underwear was not released by the military, it was taken surrepticiously, and smuggled to the media. That was unnecessary. The picture of Saddam emerging from the spider hole was all that was needed.

 

[Geoff_M]

Plus I also believe in freedom of the press. I do not believe the press wants to show the dead bodies to be sensational - but to tell the whole story. It bothers me that any administration would want to censor that.

You are expressing an opinion against something that hasn't occurred. I assume this has to do with the news item that said that FEMA had "banned" photos of dead bodies. FEMA, nor has any other federal agency attempted to do anything of the find. This is just like the whole "finding" vs "looting" photo "controversy" Here's a e-mail from one someone who talked to the person at the center of the "story:

After doing some research, I wanted to share with you what I found out. I spoke with Debbie Charles at Reuters who collected the information (the email response) from FEMA after making a request to have a photographer and reporter to accompany the rescue boats.

To her surprise, the information and conversations she had regarding the event were then taken by another person and made into a news story. After reading her the lead of the Reuters story over the phone, she agreed that the first paragraph was inaccurate:

ORLEANS (Reuters) - The U.S. government agency leading the rescue efforts after Hurricane Katrina said Tuesday it does not want the news media to take photographs of the dead as they are recovered from the flooded New Orleans
area.

The second paragraph of the story IS accurate:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, heavily criticized
for its slow response to the devastation caused by the hurricane, rejected requests from journalists to accompany rescue boats as they went out to search for storm victims.

Debbie said that her request to get on the boats was denied more due to a policy stemming from FEMA concerning space in the boat should they come across bodies or folks stranded - that they'd need the space in the boat to get them out of the area.

Regarding the photographing of the deceased... Debbie said that FEMA was more concerned with photographing bodies that hadn't had a chance to be identified or that FEMA hadn't had a chance to inform families about. She went on to say that her impression of the request wasn't that FEMA was trying to restrict photos of bodies being made altogether.

If you look at the wires, there are plenty photos of the deceased coming across. I have no doubt that FEMA is restricting access to other operations across the country, but after talking with folks in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Mississippi, the restrictions seemed to be stemming more out of a concern for HIPPA and privacy. Although slow and limited, some news operations are getting access in places like the Houston Astrodome and other shelters across the country.

Throughout our nation’s history, the ability of a free press to report and document our nation’s tragedies is crucial to having an informed public who will inevitably begin to search for answers and seek solutions in the weeks and months to come. Without the photographs and news stories that bring clarity and scope to such a tragedy, the American public is denied the right to draw informed and intelligent conclusions and then learn from them.

We should urge all government agencies involved with assisting citizens affected by Hurricane Katrina to work with news organizations in the same fashion. A great deal of the healing process for so many people involves their ability to tell their stories so that others may cope, understand and heal alongside them.

With regards,
Chris Stanfield
Director of Photography
Pioneer Press
St. Paul, MN

President
Associated Press Photo Managers

So FEMA said:
1) We don't have space in our boats for pool photographers. We need the space for our work. If you want to do that, please get your own boat, or shoot from a bridge, etc.
2) We're asking that you not show photos of bodies of people who haven't been identified and families haven't been informed.

Bottom line: There has been a steady stream of "body" images coming of out NO with no reports of any photographer from being prohibited from taking such an image. A "request" isn't a "ban" or an "attempt to censor" on the part of an administration.

 

[Tigger_Magic]

I do have a problem with executed criminals being shown in the media, without a doubt, but I can certainly see the usefulness of showing the bodies of Uday and Qusay during war time. It is evidence to those that support them that they are dead, so they may as well surrender. It is evidence to those that fear them that they are dead, so they no longer have to fear that they will return to power. The picture of Saddam in his underwear was not released by the military, it was taken surrepticiously, and smuggled to the media. That was unnecessary. The picture of Saddam emerging from the spider hole was all that was needed.

Emphasis added is mine. These goals were not accomplished to any great degree by the release of those photos. Their publication/display certainly didn't break the back of Saddam loyalists and it didn't do much good in helping those who long feared Saddam. This is a very lame justification for the unjustifiable.

But you gotta love those incredible flexible standards.