CNN sues over FEMA dead body request:
In response to FEMA’s request for news outlets to not photograph the dead bodies left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina by filing a lawsuit. Because of that, a federal judge has issued a restraining order against the ban. I guess we can expect to see the pictures of someone’s family member found dead in their house after they’ve been left there for weeks all in the name of the “free flow of information”. Check out the arrogance of CNN’s Anderson Cooper…
“The government cannot be allowed to hinder the free flow of information,” said CNN journalist Anderson Cooper. “That’s what we say in the lawsuit.”
I guess the media cannot be allowed to have a sense of decency and decorum either. No wonder CNN’s ratings have been on the slide for years.
UPDATE: The federal government has dropped the ban in response to the lawsuit. I guess we can look forward to Anderson Cooper’s Cadaver Variety Hour now. Believe it or not, there are some things the media doesn’t need to know.
The Trench Reynolds Report 
Arrogant pigs. That’s all there is to say, really.
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The thought of the oxygen being wasted dimays me.:sad:
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agreed
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You are fooling yourself if you think that FEMA’s ban on photographing dead bodies in New Orleans had anything to do with decorum and privacy for bereaved families.
While I normally would agree with you, and continually criticize journalists who feel obligated to stick their cameras in the face of the grieving and distraught, all for the sake of a cheap rating at the expense of people at their most vulnerable moments, this mandate by FEMA is different.
If you thought about it at all you’d realize that this was a PR move by an organization that has nothing but PR left in its bag of tricks. Having been emasculated by the White House, and turned into a home for political know nothings, FEMA needs every trick it can find to minimize this disaster and enhance the perception that it knows what it is doing.
The people who need praise and recognition are the first responders, EMTs, Paramedics, Firemen, Police and rescue squads of all kind who responded on a personal level, giving all the help they could muster without the help of ineffectual local or national governments.
Heads should roll for the lack of planning in disaster avoidance and disaster management.
I have little doubt about the recovery we are good at throwing hundreds of billions at problems that millions would have avoided. Will our politicians ever learn that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure or will their perennial search for the sound bite always lead them to ignore the boring preventions for the sexy swagger at a crisis.
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David, even if FEMA’s motives were less than honorable it still doesn’t excuse the media from wanting to plaster the pictures and images of the corpses all over print, TV, and the internet.
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Excerpt from a post I made earlier today seems to fit here:
“I thought capitalizing politically on a tragedy [like 9/11] was out of the question and that even subtle hints of imagery were too troubling for the American psyche. Turns out that rule only applies when the tragedy helps Bush in the polls. If there is even the slightest possibility that a gruesome tragedy will ding Bush in the polls, it becomes imperative to show dead bodies.”
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lets not forget how politically correct it is for the media and the worlds celebrities to drool over tragedies when it can be slanted into being Bush’s fault somehow. đŸ˜‰
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