This is not something that can be hidden in this day and age. Too many computers.
Posted on 09/06/2005 10:29:23 PM PDT by HAL9000
NEW ORLEANS, Sept 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. government agency leading the rescue efforts after Hurricane Katrina said on 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 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.
An agency spokeswoman said space was needed on the rescue boats and that "the recovery of the victims is being treated with dignity and the utmost respect."
"We have requested that no photographs of the deceased be made by the media," the spokeswoman said in an e-mailed response to a Reuters inquiry.
The Bush administration also has prevented the news media from photographing flag-draped caskets of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, which has sparked criticism that the government is trying to block images that put the war in a bad light.
The White House is under fire for its handling of the relief effort, which many officials have charged was slow and bureacratic, contributing to the death and mayhem in New Orleans after the storm struck on Aug. 29.
Let's see if the leftist make a big deal to get these released like the military photos.
Naturally, no mention of the LA government's bumblings of past and present. Typical Reuters.
Good call, FEMA.
This is not a Spicoli operation with one guard, one celebrity, five photogs and no bilge plug.
Grrr...why don't they criticize idiot Blanco for sitting on her thumb for days before going to the feds for assistance, hmmm?
I've seen plenty of dead bodys on cnn's coverage in the last day or so.
You know they will. And they'll run HUGE versions of the images with the text "BUSH LIED, THEY DIED" on them.
Mark my words.
What do you mean "get the photos released"? They either take the pictures or they don't - if they take them, there isn't anything the government can do to stop them from being published. About the only thing they can do is refuse to cooperate with any news agency that publishes such photos.
I think seeing 40,000 dead bodies is way over the top...Glad FEMA stepped in.
40,000??? where are you coming up with that number?
What a wonderful way for the family to find out that their loved one is dead. Media scum.
Recover, notify next of kin, then bury/cremate. Respect. If the family wants to have the corpse on TV, then that is their call.
OK, I found an article with that figure - still, that seems unlikely to me.
I think seeing 40,000 dead bodies is way over the top...Glad FEMA stepped in.
I disagree. they should be show to anyone contemplating a public office with responsibility for lives and those that vote for them....
Photos or no photos, it won't make a difference. People see what they want to see in the reporting of this story.
It's a shame when the government has to remind the maggots in the DemocRATS' Liberal "media" that exploitation of the dead for political purposes is inhumane.
Unless they died in the past day or two, I doubt anyone would be recognizable. I have seen numerous bodies on the news, and in many cases it was hard to tell it was a human body.
Since when is the government in charge of what the media prints or does not print? Stupidity like this is what is giving this administration a bad name.
You give the Guardian too much credit. These guys understand about as much about the United States as they do Poland.
The US Government did a great job of pimping the casket photos as much as they could on defenselink until the casualty figures started getting too high. If they are so concerned about privacy, why did they have them up on a military site to begin with?
The Guardian? This was from Reuters.
Before reading this post, I have been sensing a conspiratorial effort on the part of all gov't officials and media to withhold actual causuality count figures. I think the public is being lied to. To what end, I assume it is to not further depress the evacuees?
Not even the walking dead like Mayor Nagin?
Yeah, i even saw a couple on fox a day or so ago. If you watch the helicopter shots you will often see dead people near those being hoisted, at which point there is a quick camera jerk and the move off it.
Its going to happen, and as long as the shots are long range and not identifiable I don't see the problem in showing America what happens when you elect incompetents and put them in charge of executing disaster plans.
When the finally tally is in we will have lost more people to a Sobbing Governor and a corrupt and incompetent Mayor that we lost on 9/11, Afghanistan, Gulf I, Gulf II and the occupation of Iraq combined.
There is going to be many, many dead.
Most of them were very badly bloated and floating face down.
This is not something that can be hidden in this day and age. Too many computers.
If we don't have photographs, how will Louisiana officials identify the dead when they show up at the polls on election day?
Al'Reuters is in true form tonight.
How did you arrive at that number? Do you have a crystal ball? If so, you'd win the lottery in a nano-second.
I agree , the dead should not be filmed or photographed ,
it's disrespectful . Let them be .
I think many have a morbidity fetish , let's not feed that.
Good God don't these vultures have ANY sense of decency?
What am I saying? They're journalists!
Of course not.
Good grief, these people have been through enough without having their dead paraded just so some photographer can get a cheap thrill.
The article impies that they are not going to be allowed to go on the recovery routes with FEMA. I don't think the government has the responsibility to take them to the bodies. I'm thinking there are still some bad guys out there and they probably don't want to go on their own but that is just assumption on my part. If they get in on their own and take pictures and publish them, more power to them.
Well said. We don't need to see pictures of the dead.
Has Rooters published photos of the victims of 9/11?
I was supposed to be on a crew to look for and remove bodies in MS this week. It is my understanding that the people on body removal are "professionals" only, meaning military or med tech. The fella that hooked me up assumed I was military, but I'm not. So, I was not allowed on a crew.
I have also spoken with one of the building inspectors in Pascagoula (some of his family will be loaned a house owned by my family) and he says even he can't find out any actual numbers. That may not seem all that strange to folks from not around these parts. Why would a building inspector know what the body count is? Well because in Pascagoula everybody knows everybody, and this guy is one of only three building inspectors in the city. They are checking every building for structural damage and condemning them left and right. I wonder if the city officials even know the true count. We may never know because it seems there is every effort being made to bury it.
You mean unless they see an actual picture, they may not miss their loved one?
I think you are mistaken. The military casket photos were never on DefenseLink.mil until after the forced release of them via the FOIA from "TheMemoryHole.org".
LOL! Have you ever seen a week old bloated corpse? If you can ID that type of body simply by visuals, you are in the wrong profession.
My girlfriend was 'drafted', she was one of the only people there with a digital camera, to be a forensic photographer after the tsunami here in Thailand. She still has plenty of the pictures on her PC. If you want to see what this type of corpse looks like, I will be more than happy to forward you a few shots.
When was the FOIA? I remember downloading them from the Afghanistan conflict before we ever went into Iraq.
Nowhere does it say the government is ordering the media to stop taking pictures of the dead. That's because they can't, both legally and practically. My guess is that you know this, too, so try reading the article a little more thoroughly next time. The quote says the government "requests" they not take the photos.
Now, tell me again about stupidity and bad names.
ogrish has some pics, as well as tsunami pics.
The bloated semi-human faces you'll see are not anything you want to see. I can take it, but very few can.
The BBC TV news last night said the new troops in New Orleans were from Fort Bragg, Texas.
There is an excellent article on Opinion Journal, tonight, that does just that, criticizes Blanco and Nagin.
We actually should see pics of the dead. And the 9/11 splattered bodies.
We're adults, we need to not be so damn desensitized by the media. ogrish usually provides as much as they can, but it's pretty rare to get major disaster-area footage.
When you love someone, there is always something about what remains that you will recognize.
So why are they even making a statement about it?
It's as likely to identify flood drowning victims as it is to identify the cow of the steak you ate.
Basically, it's totally turned into something that's outreagously horrible, but unrecognizable.
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