[images added by
this website] London, Monday, April 26, 2004Diana crash
photo has half the shock value of Iraq
coffins Nicholas Wapshott on
America TWO images of death caused
embarrassment and grief last week. A photograph of
Diana, Princess of Wales, on the floor of
the Mercedes-Benz in which she died, broadcast by
CBS News as part of an investigation into her
death, caused barely a flicker of concern in a
country that has always claimed to have taken the
Princess to its heart. The
pictures that caused real shock and anguish in
America were the first published photographs of
coffins carrying home US military personnel killed
in Iraq. Two grisly images of death. Two quite different
reactions. Both presented as noble exercises in
serving the public interest. The picture of the
Princess, showing little more than her blonde hair,
was taken by papparazzi moments after the fatal
crash and was culled by CBS from the French inquiry
into her death. The decision to show the Princess in her final
moments was presented as a journalistic coup, yet
it was little more than a ghoulish spectacle to
draw viewers to the retelling of a familiar
story. In the wake of British alarm, CBS's Sandra M.
Genelius declared disingenuously that the
picture was "in no way graphic or exploitative". It
was both. CBS attracted 9.4 million viewers to its
Diana ghoul-fest, an increase of 800,000 on the
previous week's offering. By contrast, the pictures
of coffins of Americans killed in Iraq failed to
make the front page of the New York Post on
Friday, although the Daily News splashed one
on its cover. Editors at The New York Times
shillyshallied, demoting the most eloquent image of
the Iraq war this year to the bottom of the front
page in favour of a plug for Cunard's QM2 arriving
in New York harbour. The difference in approach
between the papers is explained by politics. Although the Pentagon welcomed the press along
when the 1st Cavalry attacked Baghdad, pictures of
wounded, dying or dead soldiers have rarely been
published in America. Until the siege of Fallujah
began two weeks ago, when photographs of US
soldiers wiping blood from their faces appeared,
unfavourable images of the war have been largely
absent. The lack of pictures of military coffins or
funerals, however, is the result of Pentagon
censorship. During the 1991 Gulf
War, President Bush Sr prohibited such
images, fearful of repeating the caustic effect
that pictures of the 55,000 body-bags returning
from Vietnam had on the presidency of Lyndon
Johnson. Before the Iraq war, George W. Bush
reimposed his father's ban for the same reasons,
citing "concern for the families of the
dead". The censorship held for more than a year with
not a single American editor thinking the ban worth
commenting on or contesting. Then came Russ
Kick, a freedom-of-speech campaigner, who,
under the First Amendment, demanded the release of
the hundreds of photographs of coffins taken by the
US Air Force "for historical purposes, for
documentation and for training". After consulting
constitutional lawyers, the USAF released 361
images of lines of coffins in warehouses at Dover
Air Force Base, Delaware. Soon afterwards, the
first photograph of flag-draped caskets appeared in
The Seattle Times. Other papers published
similar pictures five days later. The Pentagon
quickly countermanded the air force decision. The
American press, subservient to the Defence
Department's wishes for so long, must now decide
whether to mount a legal challenge. If it succeeds
- and the First Amendment is unequivocal on the
right of access to information unless it threatens
national security - pictures of coffins will become
part of America's daily diet. The coffin issue has caused an ugly skirmish in
an already brutal and graceless general election.
Those who doubt the President's motives for waging
war favour publication; those who favour his
re-election are against. The relatives of the dead
find themselves recruited by both sides. Donald
Rumsfeld will be directing his Defence Department
lawyers this morning to use every ruse to halt the
flow of images that show voters the unpalatable
price of the war. -
David Irving:
A
Radical's Diary:
"President Bush
believes in bringing back the coffins of the
soldiers who have died for him, secretly and in
the airborne equivalent of a Waste Management
truck"
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