My wife just saw this story and texted me with it and it brought back a very vivid memory.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090904/pl_politico/26759
It's about an AP story and photo that show the last moments of this Marine's life. I agree with Def. Sec. Robert Gates, it doesn't violate any law but decency and respect for this mans life. When I served in Iraq we had AP photographers & reporters imbedded with us and when I was severely wounded I saw this guy snapping pics of me bleeding all over the street. Instead of helping, he just snapped pics. A few days later I was sent to a real hospital in Germany and my wife had flown to be there. There was an AP reporter there trying to get a story on me and showed my wife the pics they shot. She was absolutely livid and pushed this woman reporter and photographer away. I was pretty drugged up at that point. Anyway, this story made me angry and I just had to vent.

That's pretty messed up. Everyone knows, intellectually, that war isn't pretty. I don't think that they need to see it in gruesome detail esepcially at the expense of the fallen troops. I really can't believe that they would move ahead against the wishes of the soldiers family.

Some people really suck.
I would have been arrested by now if I was that Soldiers father! (There isn't an emoticon to capture my true animosity)

The freedom of press has always been a big issue with me. I firmly believe that their needs to be ethics clauses implemented to avoid such crap as this. AB is right when he says that it boils down to respect. The length that some reporters go to to "get the story" never ceases to amaze me. I will say though that in my line of work I deal with the same stuff. I have never denied the press from getting their story but have had some ...ummm...interesting conflicts with some folks in the press trying to get TOO personal and just plain disrespectful with coverage. Ofcourse I was not too much in their faces or overly vocal...*cough* *sneeze*! Let's just say that they left promptly. Bottom line, the Government needs to better regulate s**t like that when it comes to press coverage. Do you think it ticks me off? You bet! P.O.Y!

I think the problem is that we have such a voyeristic society. If the media market was driven by people who actually want to see this cr@p they wouldn't push so hard to get it. I'm sure a lot of you would agree that with each generation we seem to get more desencitized to any kind of video of this nature.

There was a show on tv today called something like '9/11 - Calls from the Towers' which had all the phone calls from people who were inside the WTC on 9/11. I pretty much draw the line there, that's horrible.

I saw that advertised; thought I'd give that a miss as well...

Airbornes story is a very sad reflection of the media! It's one thing to report the news, to show the war and even to get a story. But to go against the wishes of a family is evil! To stand by and take pictures while another human being suffers or even dies... well they may as well have pulled the trigger themselves.

We had two photographers with us, an AP photog and one from a British newspaper, The London Telegraph. The AP photog was shot in the leg while with us and dropped his camera and instead of helping his fellow reporter he picked up the fallen camera and immediately took out the memory card and dropped the camera again. They all want the "timeless" shot (think of the V-E Day shot of the sailor kissing the nurse in Times Square during WWII, it's timeless, everyone has seen it and it's a perfect moment in time that will live forever, that's what they want when they agree to be imbedded, they don't really want pics of us handing candy to kids. After that reporter was shot, it was apparent that our unit, being in the "Triangle of Death", was too dangerous for reporters to take the assignment. Insurgents seemed to enjoy shooting journalists, it was a feather in their cap so to speak.

the framers of this country knew the value of a free press, so much so that it is the only civilian occupation mentioned in the constitution. i will not speak to any one's personal situations because that is none of my business, i will say, like it or not, its a journalists job to not be involved personally, or physically with whatever it is they are covering. sure, they get out of hand and behave in ways people characterize as inhuman or obscene but believe it or not thats actually part of their job. the press as a whole has done a great deal of good for not just this country but the world. without the press nixon's corruption would have run rampant. thats just one example. it is the presses job to monitor the actions of those in power, and make sure they do not wield it in ways they are not supposed too. its also their job to cover the gruesome details of the war, like it or not. these men and women who are serving our country and making sacrifices that most people would never give up if they weren't forced too. and the press should at the very least capture what exactly is happening, because it is happening. i believe that since the family of that fallen soldier said they did not want the photo's released, that they should not have been, however the press are not demons, not always. there are bad apples in all bunches.

Disgraceful.

Totally, I dunno who thought something like that was ok to broadcast. It's not like the horror of it all needed bringing home any more..

just shows how people can shead human compassion to make some money...

Funny thing is....as we (society, Americans mostly) try and shield our youth more and more from the ugliness of death and tragedies (accidents, injuries, etc etc) it seems that we have moved more and more in a desensitized direction.

Why?

There is nothing "better" than the real thing. A kid growing up 50 years ago probably saw a broken bone here and there or someone get seriously injured without his parents shielding their eyes from the blood and guts of it all. When it is REAL and in your face you tend to have a more "OMG...this CAN happen to me!" feeling.

Apply that same logic to every single scenario and it still holds true.

The more we shield things from our youth (and the public in general...age isn't really the factor here) the more desensitized we ALL become to it because there is that medium that can't be replaced with seeing something FIRST HAND.

There is something present in American media and society that isn't really found in any other country. Having lived in Italy and spent large amounts of time in Germany, Austria, and the UK I can honestly say that we (the world, countries as a whole) have a lot of the same issues. But if you really get down to it and start splitting hairs and getting technical there are a few MAJOR factors that explain why we are dealing with so many of the things we are dealing with. The scary thing is that the slippery slope present in the US for the past ~15 years is spreading to other regions where youth is fascinated by American culture.

Take situation 'A'...look at it.

On the surface you have factors 'B', 'C', and 'D' - these are the common sense, very apparent causes for situation 'A'

These are where 90% of people stop thinking about a story, event, or what have you. They think only 2 or 3 instances into something. They reach a conclusion and STOP (more on this later). Mostly because out of those factors at least ONE will line up with their personal beliefs and they'll get a self gratifying feeling that says "ok, now I'm comfortable with this...I can go onto the next ______" (story, link, news clip, etc etc etc)

Now start splitting hairs...it takes EFFORT ie time, reading, watching, learning, mainly TIME to do those other things. And an attention span (most on this later, too)

Before you know it there are factors E, F, G, H, I........X, Y, Z, AA, AB, AC

Everything is connected, there is a domino effect for all actions. In today's society more than ever, the way media reacts soooo quickly and has coverage across 100% of the globe the effects are stronger than ever. But you don't have that TIME to really analyze the information. They (media) only leaves you enough time to digest a story, compute factors B, C, D and then BAM - onto the next story. By then you've already made up your mind on something because you hit a comfortable conclusion with really testing your beliefs on the matter. Pushing your own personal boundaries.

This also plays into why we don't have the time to really look into events going on around us. We are all bombarded with a perpetual schmorgasboard of outlets for our every growing need for "knowledge". This can be very shallow knowledge (hollywood) and/or very meaningful knowledge (3rd world nations dealing with natural disasters).

Either way, we are a voyeuristic society because "a picture is worth a thousand words". When you don't have time to get through all those words you are going to want pictures (video) of it so you can get on with your day. If you saw the same sort of thing in person, you probably would need to take a few minutes (or hours) to get your wits back about you. Again, it strikes you in a completely different manner than a photo/video clip.

Man, I could tie that into our "hurry up hurry up hurry up...get more done in less time" mentality. Back when bosses and CEO's had to see and feel some compassion for their workers because they SAW EACH OF THEM ON A DAILY BASIS. Now you have CEO's that see their driver, secretary and mistress more than their own kids. Ok, I need to stop...that is a completely different topic - yet still connected to this issue...when you start splitting some hairs