The story begins this month on February 9th when Barack Obama holds a press conference and CNN's Ed Henry has a question.
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: [. . .] 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.
A review was in process? With the DoD? No, he damn well lied. The day after the press conference, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates would announce he was starting a review, as Katharine Q. Seelye (New York Times) reported. A review Barack had told America was already taking place. Only Jamie McIntyre (American Journalism Review) dared raise that issue: "The president responded with a classic dodge . . . While President Obama artfully avoided making a promise he might not want to keep, Henry had skillfully fulfilled one of journalism's basic functions: holding elected officials accountable for their own words. It's unclear whether the policy was truly under review before Henry's query put the president on the spot, but by the next day it plainly was."
And last week, Gates had another announcement: The ban had been lifted and photos could be taken . . . sort-of.
CNN reminded that supporters of dropping the ban "point out that the unmarked coffins make it impossible to identify specific remains." That's a basic point and one that needs to be remembered.
Basic points fell by the wayside as the press got ready to stroke off Barack yet again. Somehow Gates' statements were turned into a "new policy!" proclamation by outlets such as The Boston Globe and The Los Angeles Times. By contrast, Ann Scott Tyson (Washington Post) noted Gates was saying he needed "a group of advisers to come up with a plan on how to implement the new policy." (Gates told the press, "I have tasked the working groups to examine ways in which we might further assist the families of those who made the supreme sacrifices for our country" and that the tasks would be completed quickly because there were "short deadlines") .
Ken Fireman (Bloomberg News) explained Gates said "if their families agree" then photos of the coffins can be taken, under circumstances to be decided on at a later time.
The policy was not overturned. Overturning the policy would mean restoring what was in place prior. Instead of doing that, Barack has crafted a new policy.
This policy, the claim is, shows greater 'sensitivity' to the families of survivors. Nonsense. As noted earlier, the coffins are closed. No one's privacy is intruded upon by photos of the coffins being taken. These coffins returning are returning the bodies of US service members sent to a battlefield by the US government. You do not hide the costs of war.
You do not give "kill rights" on news photos.
Barack's latest Hopey Changing is more of the same garbage and should frighten the left. If this is how the Bush policies are to be 'changed,' then there's no change. They're halved and kept. Bully Boy pulled the United States closer to fascism than any White House occupant prior. The idea that his policies can be halved and that's an improvement is the sort of lunacy Medea Benjamin would applaud but no sane person would cheer.
Russ Kick (The Memory Hole) got the photos (like the one above) out during the Bully Boy Bush years. He didn't do it via a policy asking, "Hey, everybody, are we cool with me publishing these news photos?" Repeating, the news never provides anyone with "kill rights" to a story or photo.