Woman loses her job over dead GI coffins photo

How can the fault be the paper's? There's absolutely no law or rule against what they did. The rule is a military policy that governs only what they control.

If I managed to take the picture and publish it they could do nothing but whine about it.

The reason the woman was fired is because the rules govern the individuals and companies that work for the military.

Thankfully the Seattle paper doesn't.

Sorry, Craven. I just read up on this and was about to edit my post when I saw your reply. You are absolutely correct about the reason the woman was fired.

I will still be anxious to see what kind of reaction the Pentagon, etc. has. I expect there to be some pressure on the media.

I kinda hope the military is dumb enough to push this one. If they do it can backfire.

My sentiments exactly!

The intent of this woman was to take photos, sell them and make money from the sales.

Photojournalism is a valuable and highly respected profession, Miller. The problem is that she went against the rules of her employer.

LOL!

Ok, how much did she make?

How to make a war popular? Lower the taxes, hide evidence of death, and make everyone immune from the draft. What a nice war!

Photojournalist? I thought she was a Kuwait-based cargo worker. Didn't she load freight all day?

You just described photojournalism, Miller. There is nothing inherently wrong with people taking photos of newsworthy subjects, selling them, and making money from the sales. This cargo worker was dabbling in photojournalism, a highly respected field. Where she went wrong was in breaking her employer's rules about photo subjects. I just want us to be clear about the wrongful action here.

Re: McGentrix


That's because Clinton never had the balls to fight a war when the situation clearly required one. (e.g. Somalia, Bosnia, Al-Qaeda - after the Khobar Towers bombings, Africa Embassy bombings, USS Cole). Of course Clinton ignored the policy, all of the bodies of US military personnel that returned during his administration died being stuck by out enemies, none died striking back.



Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

You all rant about the most insignificant things.

Lusatian
Lusatian, some people have different priorities.

BBB

Re: Lusatian


And thank God for that!

And it's a good rule too. Why before this I couldn't get enough war news and war images. Here I am enjoying pictures of bandaged blown up soldiers and children, destroyed and blown up cities and homes, and my especial favorite, bleached and perfectly capped tooth, custom suit attired, televangelist looking scumbag politicians talking about how war is a messy business and "Bring it on", and then they have to go and spoil it for me by posting picture of some boxes with flags around them.

I mean, really, what kind of sad state of affairs would it be if suddenly tomorrow the whole world woke up and they were war weary? That would suck, and McGentrix would have to go back to aol online friends for his entertainment..... :wink:

In troubled times like these, you'd think I could at least enjoy the war.

How did my name get brought up?

And really, AOL? That's so 80's...

You do understand the political term "war weariness" right? I ask because I think (hard to tell) that I agree with what you are trying to say but I think you are addressing me because you think the term is oxymoronic (which is not my fault, I did not coin it).

Well Craven, I do find it oxymoronic, as well as just plain moronic, so much so that I would never even consider you might have coined such a phrase. :wink:

Please give me the exact military/political definition of war weariness though, because I can't imagine it having a meaning much deeper or complex than what's on the face of it.

I didn't see where any of you read the follow-ups to this. They've been in our papers all week along with scads of opinion pieces & letters. This one is the most complete from the Sunday Seattle Times (You'd have to register if you wanted to read this, so I have posted the whole thing.):

Well it's gonna be my opinion but here it is, for what it's worth:

War weariness is a political term for the way in which a war makes a nation's population uncomfortable. That's the easy and obvious answer.

But the real political meaning comes when you analyze the changes in war weariness throught history and the effect war weariness has on different forms of government.

Democracy is the form of government most affected by war weariness, and that's why means to combat war weariness often tackle tricricky areas of Democracy like "free press".

A more authoritarian governmental system can better handle war weariness largly through manipulation of the press.

A Democracy is deeply affected, regardless of what kind of war but especially so in controversial wars.

War weariness is becoming more and more a factor as technology progresses because there is more intra-cultural exchange (a simple example is that if we went to war with Mexico there's be a lot of Mexicans here who wouldn't deminize the Mexicans as easily) and more economic contagion (instability is worse for far reaching markets than it was in the past).

The "containment" of war weariness in the US military is largely a result of the Vietnam war.

Prior to that war the government was easily able to manipulate media (e.g. in WW2 civilians served up a lot of the military's propaganda, and things like the scrap metal drive kept war weariness down). That combined with the fact that reporting was more "distant" made war weariness an insignificant concern back then.

With the Vietnam war the military learned that war weariness is a major factor.

"Containing" war weariness has had benefits. The military has had to learn how to make more accurate weapons and reduce civilian deaths. The military has had to learn to win their wars more swiftly because time is war weariness' partner.

The military is also learning to use PR as a weapon and is learning to manage media. The embedded reporters is the greatest wartime example of delicate modern-day media management in a democracy with free press.

Rules like the one about the photography are also ways to combat war weariness.

[size=7]http://vccslitonline.cc.va.us/AFTA/weariness.htm[/size]

edited for foot in mouth disease