New Orleans: Photograph Ban - US Government 'does an Iraq'
reutersfoundation: U.S. agency blocks photos of New Orleans dead
The U.S. government agency leading the rescue efforts after Hurricane Katrina said on Tuesday it does not want the news media to take photographs of the dead as they are recovered from the flooded New Orleans area.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, heavily criticized for its slow response to the devastation caused by the hurricane, rejected requests from journalists to accompany rescue boats as they went out to search for storm victims.
An agency spokeswoman said space was needed on the rescue boats and that "the recovery of the victims is being treated with dignity and the utmost respect."
"We have requested that no photographs of the deceased be made by the media," the spokeswoman said in an e-mailed response to a Reuters inquiry.
The Bush administration also has prevented the news media from photographing flag-draped caskets of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, which has sparked criticism that the government is trying to block images that put the war in a bad light.
The White House is under fire for its handling of the relief effort, which many officials have charged was slow and bureacratic, contributing to the death and mayhem in New Orleans after the storm struck on Aug. 29. Link
db: Memo from a [fictional] Whitehouse decision-maker
Get those priorities right - news media must be prevented wherever possible from exploiting the opportunity that the 'recovery' effort in New Orleans presents to acquire damaging and misleading photographic images of people left to die by a criminally inadequate 'rescue' operation. Nice people don't want to see pictures of dead folk - be they freedom's soldiers, natives in far away places, or the US's own unlucky Katrina victims. Further, images like that will only make people hate their government and ask awkward questions about Katrina [act of god] preparations [acts of men] and the broader issue of the massive US underclass, it's acceptance by the elite as a permanent and desirable fixture, and the consequent increasing devide in America and it's powder-keg status. Clearly such an expansive debate will not help the dead. Better we go on the 'offense' by forcefully removing the remaining hardcore of so-called 'independently minded' Americans from their last remaining dwellings - using lethal force where necessary - and then create a 'ring of steel' around the city - comprised of state-of-the-art road-blocks with twitchy fingered white youths from Iowa guarding all points of entry. Maybe some Biometrics will be useful for returning residents - this may require an estimated $500M investment to integrate an appropriate IT infrastructure with the necessary capabilities to capture residents information (retinas are good) store it on a database and share it with all other Homeland Security affiliated databases on computer systems across the US. This provides a great opportunity to skill-up and enables a pro-active approach in managing and monitoring the return of some former residents..
UPDATE: 07 Sep, Wed, 22:02:47 n021.dhs.gov .....these guys endorse our thinking and are flocking to db
The U.S. government agency leading the rescue efforts after Hurricane Katrina said on Tuesday it does not want the news media to take photographs of the dead as they are recovered from the flooded New Orleans area.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, heavily criticized for its slow response to the devastation caused by the hurricane, rejected requests from journalists to accompany rescue boats as they went out to search for storm victims.
An agency spokeswoman said space was needed on the rescue boats and that "the recovery of the victims is being treated with dignity and the utmost respect."
"We have requested that no photographs of the deceased be made by the media," the spokeswoman said in an e-mailed response to a Reuters inquiry.
The Bush administration also has prevented the news media from photographing flag-draped caskets of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, which has sparked criticism that the government is trying to block images that put the war in a bad light.
The White House is under fire for its handling of the relief effort, which many officials have charged was slow and bureacratic, contributing to the death and mayhem in New Orleans after the storm struck on Aug. 29. Link
db: Memo from a [fictional] Whitehouse decision-maker
Get those priorities right - news media must be prevented wherever possible from exploiting the opportunity that the 'recovery' effort in New Orleans presents to acquire damaging and misleading photographic images of people left to die by a criminally inadequate 'rescue' operation. Nice people don't want to see pictures of dead folk - be they freedom's soldiers, natives in far away places, or the US's own unlucky Katrina victims. Further, images like that will only make people hate their government and ask awkward questions about Katrina [act of god] preparations [acts of men] and the broader issue of the massive US underclass, it's acceptance by the elite as a permanent and desirable fixture, and the consequent increasing devide in America and it's powder-keg status. Clearly such an expansive debate will not help the dead. Better we go on the 'offense' by forcefully removing the remaining hardcore of so-called 'independently minded' Americans from their last remaining dwellings - using lethal force where necessary - and then create a 'ring of steel' around the city - comprised of state-of-the-art road-blocks with twitchy fingered white youths from Iowa guarding all points of entry. Maybe some Biometrics will be useful for returning residents - this may require an estimated $500M investment to integrate an appropriate IT infrastructure with the necessary capabilities to capture residents information (retinas are good) store it on a database and share it with all other Homeland Security affiliated databases on computer systems across the US. This provides a great opportunity to skill-up and enables a pro-active approach in managing and monitoring the return of some former residents..
UPDATE: 07 Sep, Wed, 22:02:47 n021.dhs.gov .....these guys endorse our thinking and are flocking to db
posted by exoplanet at 2:56 PM
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