Media groups say FEMA censors search for bodies

[sabra]

http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2005-09-07T200848Z_01_N07644534_RTRIDST_0_KATRINA-CENSORSHIP.XML

Media groups say FEMA censors search for bodies

WASHINGTON, Sept 7 (Reuters) - When U.S. officials asked the media not to take pictures of those killed by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, they were censoring a key part of the disaster story, free speech watchdogs said on Wednesday.

The move by the Federal Emergency Management Agency is in line with the Bush administration's ban on images of flag-draped U.S. military coffins returning from the Iraq war, media monitors said in separate telephone interviews.

"It's impossible for me to imagine how you report a story whose subject is death without allowing the public to see images of the subject of the story," said Larry Siems of the PEN American Center, an authors' group that defends free expression.

U.S. newspapers, television outlets and Web sites have featured pictures of shrouded corpses and makeshift graves in New Orleans.

[cthrumatrix]

1. bush plan= cover up

[UpInArms]

2. there's that MSM again - breaking their news an hour after DU

carries the torch of truth to the streets

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1761169&mesg_id=1761169

stopbush (1000+ posts) Wed Sep-07-05 02:20 PM
Original message
BREAKING: Bush banning all media from New Orleans

[Bumblebee]

6. at least they are doing it!

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Cover up. Dump them in mass graves, no autopsies, and that will

reduce the 10,000 (?) dead to 52!!

[malaise]

8. They cannot hide this

people know their relatives are dead. They will talk. They will not escape this time. There is no way out of this. People have social security numbers and other forms of identification in the system. This will haunt them to their graves - fugging scum.

[DBoon]

13. Isn't a certain middle eastern ex-dictator on trial for this same act?

Didn't we invade based in part of behavior like this?

Because it was pure evil and the world could not tolerate it?

[Kikosexy2]

14. Start calling...

all and I mean all congresspeople NOW!!! Demand the press to remain in NO!! Don't let up--email, call!! DEMAND NOW!!

[NYC]

23. I agree with you,

but figure 152 will be the final figure.

[FightingIrish]

4. The phoniest president ever.

Every event is scripted with an elaborate backdrop or banner and a caned audience. To make it work though, you have to hide the bad stuff. Karl Rove, you ass, this is real now.

[JustSayNO 2 Sheeples]

5. I think this is the story being reported

on the DU homepage and in LBN as "Bush bans reporters from NO" (or something to that affect. It's not a ban on news reporters, just what they can take photos of and who they can accompany to do so.

[politick]

7. They Have No Choice

and they're too arrogant to see that their arrogance has gotten them into this problem and their immunity has worn off. This will not fly. The press is fed up. The American people are seeing a first hand, local account of their inhumanity. It's over.

[aintitfunny]

9. It is censorship - plain and simple.

They can call it dignity all they want. They should have gotten there sooner and saved some of these people from such un-dignified death. If it were my "Uncle" I would want everyone to know and see the evil that this administration has wrought.

[NYC]

24. Dignity is the same excuse they used for Iraqi torture victims.

They were not treated with dignity; nor were the people at the Superdome. Once again, they say the people whom they did not treat with dignity will suffer indignity from the photographs, even if identities are obscured.

[joeunderdog]

26. Publicity was encouraged for 9/11.

For cryin out loud, it's part of the backdrop of half of Shrub's speeches.

Amazing what a little death can do for you if you use it right.

[William769]

10. I would call it respect for the dead

But thats just me.

[kath]

11. BS - the pictures I've shown don't show faces, so the dead person can't

be specifially IDed. The atrocity needs to be shown
Where was the respect for these people BEFORE they died???????

[geniph]

12. I'm a bit more impressed by respect for the living, myself

but that's just me.

[SlowDownFast]

18. the best way of honoring the dead

is to show America the hard, cold truth of what has happened, in order to be sure this type of tragedy never happens again.

If the dead could speak of this tragedy that befell them, I'm sure they'd say the same.

I know I would if it was my dead body.

Show America the truth.

[Larkspur]

16. If I was murdered by Bush, I'd want the Media to show my dead body

to the nation in the hope that it will wake the sheeple.

[meganmonkey]

15. C'mon - everyone knows that showing pictures of the dead will just

empower the terrorists, right?

Oh, wait...that's a different script. Sorry.

}(

[ninkasi]

17. They don't want the full impact

of their crimes made public...cutting funding to help restore the levees, inexcusable delays in getting help to the scene, and completely incomprehensible to me, turning away hundreds of people willing and able to come in and help.

No, they don't want any photos that haven't been scripted to make the Idiot Prince look like he's really a human. With parents like his, that would have been impossible.They don't care how many people died, or are homeless, or who lived through conditions that would have caused dogs and cats to be removed by the Humane Society. All they care about is damage control, and finding somebody else to blame.

[steely]

19. Tell the media to get the fuck in there.

[eleonora]

20. WHY IS THE MEDIA COMPLYING??

There should be hundreds of articles on major news media outlets about this attack on freedom of speech!!

[Voltaire99]

36. Exactly. Obedience--and not Bushista censorship--is the scandal.

There was a brief moment in the early horrifying hours when the media was presenting unmediated images; e.g., Mr. Gould on the phone from the convention center with this genocide discussion, accompanied by footage of the misery outside.

Like any sensible American, I avoid the US corporate media like the plague. So seeing that was extraordinary. Not 24 hours later, when I checked in again, the self-aggrandizing cosmetic dogs had returned with their mantra of DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY.

The TV has been off here ever since.

[eleonora]

44. Just in: CNN filed suit!

They'll take it to federal court too! At LAST, a gleam of hope!

[Tsiyu]

21. We are supposed to have Freedom of the Press

Congress shall make no law denying or abridging the right of the People to a Free press.

Repukes really DO want to destroy everything America stands for. They hate the truth and they want you and I to ignore it so they can rape and pillage some more.

Greed sure does nasty things to people.

[kestrel91316]

46. Bush/Repukes = secrecy, secrecy, secrecy, to the nth degree

[cap]

22. we need the pictures taken anyhow...

we need the historical record for planning for future disasters.

[Chalco]

25. I fail to see why the press would even consider going along with this.

FEMA is not their boss. Period. End of story. Secondly, and more importantly, it constitutes censorship.

[all.of.me]

27. i just woke up. i thought it said 'fema censors' 'search for bodies'

i asked myself, what the hell is a fema censor?! a dog?! :rofl:

[defiant1]

28. What a fucking crock....

*snip*

"By and large, American television is the most sanitized television in the world," he said. "They are less likely to show bodies, they are less likely to show graphic images of the dead than any television in the world."

*snip*

So I can spend a night watching CSI, Law & Order, NCIS, House etc, then flip on my local news, and they don't want to show me corpses.

Gotcha.

[supernova]

29. It's true

We entertain ourselves with fake voilence in television and video games, but when it comes to real-world violence, we're suddenly squeamish.

[Just Me]

30. Government censorship ----> the truth is its worst enemy.

Face it: the BushCO/neoCONsters are American dictators.

[Megahurtz]

34. Yeah, and they're NeoconMONSTERS too. n/t

[Felix Mala]

31. Wait 'til they release their "count" of the dead. I bet some

conservative think tank is working on the most politically acceptable number right now. The nets could easily pixilate the bodies yet show the workers doing their jobs. FEMA is far more concerned about eye witnesses reporting on the job they're doing.

[emrenz]

32. They want us to wear blinders too!

This is an absolute attempt to censor the media! I hate this crap about doing it out of respect for the families! This administration plods along with blinders on and wants to force them on us. Maybe the christian righties prefer to be led like lambs to a slaughter, but I for one want to SEE the truth.

Funny when you think about it....there's more bullshit in the White House than Bushy's Crawford ranch!

[struggle4progress]

33. kick

[gulfcoastliberal]

35. This is Hurricane SOP. They did this is Pensacola after Ivan.

Wouldn't want to frighten anyone with death counts.

Besides, it's "respectful" not to mention their deaths. :sarcasm:

[JDPriestly]

37. The Bushies are making a huge mistake.

Personally, I think that people are anticipating more deaths than have occurred. If the press is not present during the counting, and the number is low, only the Bushista fanatics will believe the official number. If the press is allowed to go in there and FREELY OBSERVE the body count and recovery (without having to sign contracts or go only where the Bushies allow them to), the reporters will be able to vouch for the numbers.

I can understand the Bush administration's concern for the health and safety of members of the press under the dangerous circumstances, but this did not prevent the Bushistas from embedding members of the press with the troops to Iraq -- where it was so dangerous that a number of reporters died on duty.

[marshall]

38. They shot photographers in Galveston in 1900

I can't remember what they called them, something like "Kodak Guys" because cameras that could be owned and used by the everyday person had just come into use in 1900. People who were photographing dead bodies as well as looters were summarily shot on the spot.

[enigami]

39. I have heard this too...I also remember reading

that the few photos taken, were taken by people that lied and said their cameras were new fangled survey equipment.

[mwooldri]

40. Are the foreign media being restricted just as much?

Are they just relaying what the US domestic media produces, or are there some out there? The dead bodies I've seen on bbcnews.com have been unidentifiable but there have been plenty enough of them shown on the website, and on the online video they make available.

Are the foreign media doing a better job (again) ?

[Justitia]

41. If you don't see it, **POOF**, it didn't happen. -eom

[txaslftist]

42. Now you know what will happen to unidentified corpses...

...or people still missing after all is said and done. After all, didn't 80% of NO evacuate prior to the storm? P'raps your missing loved one was one of them. Did you try the Red Cross's missing Katrina survivor locater service?

Hmmm. Well, maybe he just decided not to come back...

Low body count. High count of Katrina MIAs.

FEMA looks good. Bush looks good. 'Cause, you know, in a mass evacuation like this one, some folks are just bound to come up missing.

Lots of full-bellied alligators.

And since the city's been emptied of witnesses....

...whose gonna verify?

[renegade000]

43. honestly what are we?

Soviet Russia?

[anitar1]

45. Not far from it. n/t