Friday's paper featured "Photographing Iraq war fallen shows the full costs of war" and, to steal from C.I., "Writing an editorial does not allow you to change what happened at a public event. Writing an editorial does not give you permission to lie about the facts." Yet, by sentence two, the editorial board attempts to do just that:
TIME has come to rescind the Pentagon policy barring media from photographing the return to the United States of troops killed in Iraq.
President Obama raised the matter in a news conference earlier this week.
Catch it? "President Obama raised the matter in a news conference earlier this week." He did? Yes, he did. He raised it in Monday's press conference -- if he also works for CNN and uses the alias "Ed Henry."
Ed Henry: Thank you, Mr. President. You've promised to send more troops to Afghanistan. And since you've been very clear about a time table to withdraw our combat troops from Iraq within 16 months, I wonder what's your time table to withdraw troops eventually from Afghanistan?And related to that, there's a Pentagon policy that bans media coverage of the flag-draped coffins from coming into Dover Air Force Base. And back in 2004, then-Senator Joe Biden said that it was shameful for dead soldiers to be, quote, snuck back into the country under the cover of night.You've promised unprecedented transparency, openness in your government. Will you overturn that policy, so the American people can see the full human cost of war?
Barack Obama: [. . .] Now with respect to the policy of opening up media to loved ones being brought back home, we are in the process of reviewing those policies in conversations with the Department of Defense. So I don't want to give you an answer now, before I've evaluated that review and understand all the implications involved.
Who raised the issue? Ed Henry raised it. He raised it by specifically asking about it. That's only confusing to The Seattle Times.
Third sentence was no improvement for the paper, "In response, Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered a review of the policy, saying he believes there may be better ways to protect the privacy of service personnel and their families." No. Barack told the American people Monday night the policy was under review already. Gates announced Tuesday he was starting a review. So what the third sentence called for was something along the lines of: "Despite Obama claiming that a review process was underweigh Monday night, late Tuesday Gates would announce a review was starting."
For refusing to stick to the facts, The Seattle Times editorial board earns the Bronze Booby.
For reality based commentary on the photographing of coffins, see The Philadelphia Inquirer's "Editorial: Photos and Coffins" and C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" and "Barack's first public lie as president"
