Shame on the selfish Associated Press. Shame.
Before I get to the Associated Press and its vile decision to publish an embedded photographer’s image of a dying Marine in Afghanistan over the objections of the Marine’s family and the Pentagon, I want to remind you that we’ve been down this disgusting road before.
In February 2007, the New York Times published an embedded staff team’s photograph and videotape of a Texas soldier dying in Iraq. The solider was Army Staff Sgt. Hector Leija and his personal motto was “Bound by Honor”–a foreign concept at the NYTimes. As I noted at the time, embeds are required to read and agree to a clear set of ground rules forbidding release of names and video of wounded service members without their prior consent . I know, because I had to sign the forms when I embedded in Baghad in January 2007:
But ambitious, agenda-driven members of the MSM don’t let rules or wishes get in the way of a good story.
And so, it has happened again. Via Politico, AP defies common decency for the Greater Good (hat tip – Blackfive):
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is objecting “in the strongest terms” to an Associated Press decision to transmit a photograph showing a mortally wounded 21-year-old Marine in his final moments of life, calling the decision “appalling” and a breach of “common decency.”
The AP reported that the Marine’s father had asked – in an interview and in a follow-up phone call — that the image, taken by an embedded photographer, not be published.
The AP reported in a story that it decided to make the image public anyway because it “conveys the grimness of war and the sacrifice of young men and women fighting it.”
The photo shows Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard of New Portland, Maine, who was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in a Taliban ambush Aug. 14 in Helmand province of southern Afghanistan, according to The AP.
Gates wrote to Thomas Curley, AP’s president and chief executive officer. “Out of respect for his family’s wishes, I ask you in the strongest of terms to reconsider your decision. I do not make this request lightly. In one of my first public statements as Secretary of Defense, I stated that the media should not be treated as the enemy, and made it a point to thank journalists for revealing problems that need to be fixed – as was the case with Walter Reed.”
“I cannot imagine the pain and suffering Lance Corporal Bernard’s death has caused his family. Why your organization would purposefully defy the family’s wishes knowing full well that it will lead to yet more anguish is beyond me. Your lack of compassion and common sense in choosing to put this image of their maimed and stricken child on the front page of multiple American newspapers is appalling. The issue here is not law, policy or constitutional right – but judgment and common decency.”
Contact the Associated Press:
Email: info@ap.org
Headquarters
450 W. 33rd St.
New York, NY 10001
Main Number
+1-212-621-1500
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Categories: Bilal Hussein, War
Doug Ross @ Journal
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And then they wonder why Marines can’t stand most media members — or at least hold them suspicious until they can prove their trustworthiness.
Andy Hefty,
Former Sergeant
USMC, 1982-1990
Hmmmm. Profiting from the misfortune of others. Kind of like schadenfreude taken to an extreme.
No shame, no morals, no journalistic integrity. And sadly, most papers just reprint the stories from this organization.
I wonder: will they publish photos of embedded reporters that have been mortally wounded as well?
Disgusting. My heart goes out to the family of this brave young soldier. I applaud Sec. Gates for his strong condemnation of the AP. Meanwhile, the MSM have their eyes, ears and mouth covered when it comes to the Van Jones story. I never thought I could have more contempt for the MSM, but they have outdone themselves.
Vile. Whoever made this decision needs a good thrashing. Then termination. I want names.
I don’t understand why we should complain to AP. I think we should be asking Gates to pull AP’s credentials for reporting anything from over there. They clearly haven’t adhered to the rules of their permission slips and have done so at a high level in their hierarchy.
Boot the bums out, I say. Let ‘em back in when they sign a more persuasive document and make the family of this soldier satisfied. Until then… screw ‘em.
Sleeze. They should pray the pain and suffering of their children does not get used to sell a story some day. I guess when you have no soul I guess it doesn’t matter.
You can’t spell “crap” without AP.
I saw this earlier today. This just make me sick beyond belief. I have no words bad enough to say about the ap. Please, God give the Bernard family your healing arms.
L
Associated Press correspondent Alfred de Montesquiou, AP photographer Julie Jacobson and AP Television News cameraman Ken Teh might want to relocate out of harm’s way…
Not selfish, the word I would use is arrogant.
Text of my e-mail to the AP:
Perhaps they should start showing the dead bodies of murder victims, so that we understand the horror of murder.
Or perhaps they should show rape victims bloody and terrified in the emergency room so we understand the horror of rape.
Or the dozens of dead and wounded from a suicide bomber, so we understand the horror of suicide bombers.
I think you see where I’m going with this…
Anything for a buck: anything for sensationalism. In their arrogance, because they believe their side now runs the country, they stoop to the low levels of journalism, thinking that the citizens will demand more pictures of dying servicemen/women.
In the dead of night I would gather some of my buddies and give em a blanket party they would never forget.
Disgusting and no morals or decency. That would the AP.
And yes, Gate should immediately and unceremoniously eject the AP embedded reporters. In order to prevent this from happening again and causing more pain and anguish for another fallen soldier’s family, the AP must be removed.
Bury Van Jones story and insult Patriots – That ’s AP, part of MSM.
Shame. That’s a word that is quickly becoming obsolete if it hasn’t already for the liberal left.
The AP wasn’t so quick to rush in and photograph the private moments of the Kennedy family during their final goodbyes to Ted Kennedy. What hypocrites these tabloid journalists are.
When I see a headline, if it says AP right under it I move on.
And they wonder why many of the news outlets are going broke.
as a military veteran I am totally disgusted by this…and Stillontheroad I agree with you 100%…we did it to people who screwed up in basic…they never screwed up again….
Yet they never show footage of 9/11 because they don’t want to foment anger.
This is beyond disgusting! My email is on the way…
AP is a sorry ass piece of pig dung that is staffed by low intellect slugs.
That’s because they consider that Marine more of a threat to them than Al Quiada. And they want to be friends with them someday. The Marine….never.
Look at lgm. He is an apologist for them and he lives in NYC. he could see the smoke from his place.
Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard, your duty here is done. Report to General Chesty Puller at your new post in Heaven.
Rest in peace.
God will take care of punishing that reporter for you.
I don’t even have words for how disgusting I find this, and not just for this family who has been affected this time.
One of my dearest friends has a son in a stryker brigade in Afghanistan; they have lost 9 guys in 11 days. She said every time the phone rings her heart stops.
AP has added a new level of terror for all military families – the possibility that their personal mourning will be made a public spectacle.
To all of you emailing and calling the AP to express your justifiable disgust and outrage, understand that they could give a rat’s a$$ about your opinion. If you really want to hurt them, call those who pay the AP for these stories, call those who advertise in outlets that carry AP stories, and so on. They are a business (albeit one with a strong bias and agenda) and you need to fight them on economic terms. That is where it hurts them.
tiredofit08 said:
Us also, and I am not ashamed to say it. Just the thought of this desecration fills me with such rage I cannot espress it.
Al Qaeda, Associated Press, Reuters…
I’m beginning to lose focus on which is which.
http://www.AntiObamaSticker.com
Dear Sirs;
I see that you wish to “convey the grimness of war and the sacrifice of young men and women fighting it” by publishing the death throes of Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard, contrary to the wishes of his family.
Nice going. Now all of us are enlightened to the grimness and sacrifice as if we didn’t already know.
You have no idea of the level of contempt and revulsion I have for AP. I have only one hope, and that is to treat the probable death of AP with the same level of respect.
Russell Armor
******, TX
That is an excellent idea. I am looking up my local paper’s number as soon as I finish posting.
Sent to info@ap.org and pcolford@ap.org
Load them in a helicopter telling them they are going on a misision. Then fly them to the middle of nowhere and dump them off with just the clothes on their backs and leave them to find their way home. Oh, BTW, make certain there is Taliban base nearby and strafe it as you leave and then drop them a message where they can find some Americans.
Fitting way to treat somebody who doesn’t play by the rules.
I remember test firing a Trident II missile back in 1989 off the coast of Florida.
The range support ship was filled with members of the media, including lots of photographers and equipment.
The mainstream idiots joyfully filmed the Greenpeace activists trying to block the launch. When Coast Guard and a Navy vessel “fended” off the MV Greenpeace, the press was yelling that the protesters had been “rammed” by the military.
When the missile lost flight control moments after launch and had to be destroyed by Range Safety, you could see the glee in the press’ eyes.
After being told repeatedly that the cause of the malfunction would be disclosed once the flight data and film had been analyzed, I was approached by the CNN flunkie. I told him, off the record, that “we” suspected the rate gyro failed. (I knew that the Trident II did not have a rate gyro).
Sure enough, all the news weenies, within an hour, were broadcasting that the flight self-destructed after a gyro failed.
The Navy immediately discredited the story, and the correspondent that I sandbagged was rewarded with a trip to Baghdad a few months later.
Charles Jaco.
Not just the Marines; my nephew (two tours in Iraq) said that the worst thing about being over there was how the media just couldn’t seem to get it right.
Michelle – anyone else getting this message?
“You are attempting to log out of Michelle Malkin
Please try again.”
nail49 said:
In my day, 4 or 5 cartons of cigarettes and a hundred bucks would settle this score.
That’s an idea worth pursuing.
My ample
a$$posterior that’s why. They did it because two things sell these days: sex and violence.And even with that their sales are in the toilet.
I’m not a big fan of Sec. Gates, but he called this one right.
What pigs. The only “thought” or “reflection” the AP put into this act was whether they could get away with it…..
If this isn’t agenda-driven, where’s the pictures of aborted babies, or crime scene photos of heinous crimes committed by poor “underpriviledged” perps? Can’t have those! Too inflammatory, dont-ya-know…
They should take pains to see to it that that photographer be embedded w/ a patrol in a hot area, and then leave him out there, since he likes “reality” so much.
AP:”Shame? What is this thing called Shame that you speak of? This is an unknown to us. Please clarify. Decency? Also unknown. How is it that you came to know these things that of which we do not?”
I sent this to the AP:
The “grim realities of war” can be shown in many ways other than this photo. By publishing it, you are showing the grim realities of your characters.
I’ve been off Michele’s Blog for awhile. Since observing a few of your posts I’ve begun feeling badly about my sniping at you over ‘Cloth Bags’. I believe that was the issue.
I formally apologize for my hasty response.
You obviously incorporate thought, reason and fact into your argument and that today is to be celebrated, especially with the Trolls allowed to comment here. I won’t mention names as I don’t believe we should ‘feed the trolls’.
Forgiveness is optional.
I’ve been called an arrogant SOB in my own left leaning Family and consider it a Badge of Honor.
Wordpress won’t let me log out. So I guess I’m here forever.
Uplander said:
You are now the “Flying Blogger”
My e-mail to AP:
My email to AP:
I don’t expect a response from AP. I hope I get one from SECDEF.
ECS
Nail49,
God bless you for your (and your family’s) service to our country.
And remember…
As of this morning, not a single submarine has been shot down over Iraq or Afghanistan.
How about calling and writing Dr. Gates’ office and asking him to pull their credentials?
And anything for the defeat of our military heroes. The anti-war press resurfaces. The Iraq surge shut them up for a short time but they are back with a vengeance in Afghanistan.
God speed Lance Corporal Bernard.
ITS ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE HUFFINGTON POST!!!
Michelle Malkin, Screenshoot from huffington post showing this marine dying is on the way to your in box.
My e-mail to AP:
B A S T A R D S !
(Signed with home address)
CPO, USN (Ret.)
Eternity Stretches before us…
According to liberals and their press, military members are not warranted privacy. They look down on military members and are only interested in them when they are dying, not when they were living a life of service. It’s odd how mecabre the press has become regarding the military.
Who stands up for our service members these days? I don’t think it’s SecDef Gates because of his constant criticism of the Air Force and pitting of different services against one another.
Here’s a questions for the MSM: why do you care about the military? Why don’t you shamelessly follow the exploits of celebrities who don’t mind being followed? That’s the only kind of journalism you know how to do these days.
sonofdy said:
And a lot of people wonder why I absolutely loath Liberals and all of their ilk and spawn.This is just another example why.
Time to reread Thomas Sowell,
Vision of the Anointed
Personally I’ve been rereading and annotating ‘The Road to Serfdom’ – F.A Hayek.
Definitely worth a reread or a first read.
MM: I respect sonofdy for obtaining the photo, but PLEASE don’t post it. We should honor this Marine and his family’s request to keep this private.
The AP has been in the liberal tank for a long time, to the point I disregard most of their stories, for they’re biased and incomplete. Often they put opinion in place of fact, sort of like MSNBC, NBC, CBS and others. I don’t pay attention to them either. I e-mailed AP’s management a good while ago and told them they’d sold out their integrity for thirty pieces of tarnished silver. Of course, they never responded.
So, the AP persons signed “The Forms”. Apparently there is no penalty clause as related to “The Forms”.
Emails are a “delete click” away. If someone gave a sheet within the organization, there would have been no posting. They likely already have an email filter setup by now.
If he was my son, I’d be in their and his face so close that they would be able to smell what brand of coffee I was drinking.
I have no need to see a hero dying, to know the grim reality of war.
To make sure someone reads your email or letter, write them to:
Paul Colford
Director of Media Relations
Jack Stokes
Manager of Media Relations
in either the email address of
info@ap.org or
Headquarters
450 W. 33rd St.
New York, NY 10001; or
ask for them in the
Main Number
+1-212-621-1500
It pays to ask for a specific person and if you do not know anyone else at AP, those two should do.
Post #’s went to 6 digits.
Can’t log out.
hmmmmmm
What’s next?
Liberal AP retaliation for anti-ObamaCare protests.
I do not really care to grouse to the AP about their behavior. they knew exactly how folks felt about this, and din’t give a flying fark.
I want to know who to contact at the Pentagon to demand the cessation of all AP reporter embeds.
The Associated Press has intentionally violated their contract terms in publishing this photo, and need ot be held accountable.
AP can’t even play this off on the reported, as the AP in it’s entirety have made this decision, and should be held accountable for their actions.
There’s something odd about the Al-AP and HuffPo glee over this story and photo: They’re behaving as if Dubya was still President and they were happy to exploit our soldiers deaths to embarrass him. Check out this comment from a HuffPoo’er:
Show more. Show what Bush and Cheney have wrought, broken lives on both sides. Show the grief, the pain, the immeasurable suffering this Bush/Cheney lie has brought to the world.
Bush and Cheney? They’ve been out for nearly 8 months now. This is OBAMA’S WAR – the one he campaigned as being the fight we should’ve been in and the one he’s sending more troops to.
The Left is so unhinged that they can’t even keep straight what they’re blaming Dubya for. They probably don’t even realize that they are going to drag down Dear Leader’s numbers with this stunt. Idiots.
This is why military personell should avoid all reporters like the plague.
Sorry that includes the good ones as well because what they report will be distorted as well.
The young man is a MARINE, NOT A SOLDIER. There is a difference!
THIS is the sort of thing that should be posted on everyone’s front page. These are our enemies. They would gleefully cut the throats of the morons on HuffPo or KOS if they didn’t take their whole tiny heads.
ECS
It does no good to use words like “shame” and “decency” to the left. They lack even the basic concepts or the ability to comprehend them.
No hard feelings here – it’s easy enough to misconstrue a single post in a forum if there’s no broader context to go on.
Peace.
Pray for our Great Country friends.
American morals are set aside for profit and politics. I wonder if the AP idiots will demand fair usage fees or whatever the heck they wanted to charge blogs for referring to their miserable scribbling.
If there was any karmic justice, that poor soldier’s family would also have photo of a dying AP reporter to balance things out.
It would take more than one of those scum to balance out but I love thought. An AP reporter holding his beaten bloody head would be a nice start.
Have Attitude
Will Travel
Wire ArizonaNeanderthal
Cave # 4 on the FAR Right
My deepest sympathies to the family and a big F**K YOU to the AP.
Hopefully the imbedded reporter has been removed and will never again be allowed anywhere near a war zone with defense dept credentials. Hope the clown thinks it was worth it.
Well said DirkBelig. I follow Huff and the others very closely. I don’t know what’s worse, the glee that some of them show or the phony “concern” that others express. They all seemed to put on their Yankee Doodle dancin’ shoes when Obama took office. Pro-military and all that. But even Obama worship is failing to stop them from reverting to their old beliefs. It is getting amusing at times to watch them try and figure out how they can be anti-war and not be seen to be critical of their fearless leader. The “it’s Bush’s war” mantra is pretty much all they have.
It is not the reporter. It is the Associated Press that made the decision.
The AP and anyone associated with it should be shunned. So-called “right wing bloggers” are the only news people the military should embed. They are the only ones actually on our side. Anyone else will betray us for a buck. Or less.
What’s the photographer doing taking a photograph of a mortally wounded Marine in the firstp lace? This photographer/reporter is just as culpable as the AP is in general. Thizs just sickens me. I hate how the press corps demand to be allowed to be embedded in with the military, demand military protection when in harm’s way, then, when a serviceman or woman is terribly wounded or dying, decides to “go for it” and take a picture of the dying or dead, knowing that some clown back home will post it. They ought to kick the press corps right out of each unit. or tell them when they go out with them “take care of yourself”.
Pathetic…
Does anyone know the name of the photographer?
I have not seen the photo. Did the photographer know for certain the wounds were mortal?
Even if he did, to print or not to print is not a decision a photographer should be making. He snaps whatever looks relevant at the moment, and then the editors decide what is appropriate to put into a story.
The problem is with the AP. Focusing on the photographer lets the AP off the hook.
ALL of the kind of twisted, anti-American propaganda outlets like the AP masking as ‘news’ should not be let anywhere near our military. They have shown themselves to be untrustworthy and dishonorable organizations.
I concur; in the heat of the moment, there isn’t any way for a photographer to differentiate between mortal and non-mortal injuries – heck, the medics can’t always make that call either. They, like the photographer, just do what they know how to do in that moment.
No, it’s the editors at AP who, knowing that the photo was of a mortally wounded Marine, chose to ignore the wishes of the family and publish it.
my friend’s son is a corpsman with some marines. he was ordered to take press with him and told them where they could put the idea. Smart man.
I work in EMS and have been on some crashes with AP people killed. Mayhap AP would like me to release the nice photos so their families can wallow in some more pain? So we can all appreciate what the press do? Who they were really with, how their brains were smashed all over the road etc…
I have this code of conduct that unfortunately prevents it but liberals rarely seem to be so encumbered….
The whole culture of the Obama administration disrespects the military.
Robert Gates is helping his boss gut the military everyday, in every way.
AP might want to dig up some files of victims of the 9-11 attacks and publish those to remind everyone why our warriors are fighting.
Than they need to look at their human ugliness in a mirror.
Doing this to surviving family is despicable.
I hope they find comfort in the fact we find this an egregious assault on decency and compassion.
The truth in this case is the true colors of the media. That’s the picture that is clear to me!
Okay, having since read The Mudville Gazette’s account I rescind my defense of the photographer:
Recording it might be one thing; allowing it to be published against the express wishes of that Marine’s family is flat out despicable.
Gates’s objection in the “strongest possible terms” is just more meaningless, diverting, confusing, distracting bu!!$h!t from this socialist, anti-American administration.
They don’t mind in the least that the reprehensible AP published this image.
Don’t for a moment believe that these socialists give a damn…because they do not.