USA Today didn't get the FEMA memo: "No photos of bodies."

[VolcanoJen]

http://usatoday.com/

I'm reluctant to post the photo here in this thread, in case some people are sensitive to that kind of thing.

But there it is, right on their front page, a day after the edict came down. The photo accompanies their top story, "Morgue units beginning grisly task."

I find this development to be incredibly interesting, and I must say that, macabre as it may seem, I applaud their editors for actually knowing what news looks like.

Doubt this makes the print issue, though.

[saigon68]

1. Don't worry I'll post it

And take the heat from the Joe (Limpmann) Lieberman types and other Repuke Lite DINO"S who don't want their "BEAUTIFUL MINDS" annoyed as they eat their corn flakes this morning.


\

The caption

" As Katrina's dead are uncovered, officials sometime can't count on facial features, skin color and dental records to identify bodies, determine causes of deaths."


Hell its not even that bad

You can't see the eyes eaten out by the fish and crabs before they succumbed to the lack of oxygen and the chemical witches brew that killed all wild life

[VolcanoJen]

2. I knew you would.

:hug: :hug: :hug: saigon :hug: :hug: :hug:

I've been thinkin' about you a lot over the last few days.

:cry:

[saigon68]

7. Still here stirring the pot

Thanks Jen

[VolcanoJen]

12. I'd rather be smoking the pot...

... but I'm happy to stir right alongside you. :-)

[saigon68]

14. LOL

[VolcanoJen]

3. Knight-Ridder and Das Stern also "didn't get the memo."

Via Daily Kos:

Knight-Ridder - Choose Photo 1

Das Stern - brace yourself for Photo 4.

[MHalblaub]

15. "Der Stern" and "DER SPIEGEL" are German weekly magazines

So they don't really care about FEMA's policy.

And so "DER SPIEGEL" had an article on Sept. 8th with an ugly picture.

How Emergency Management Failed New Orleans

[SlowDownFast]

4. Show that Truth!

hate to be a cheerleader for showing such death and destruction...

EXCEPT IT'S TRUE AND IT HAPPENED AND IS HAPPENING!!!

[incapsulated]

5. It's probably a photo from days ago

What they don't want is photos of them gathering up the bodies. Note that the other photo with this story only shows someone carrying an empty body bag.

[VolcanoJen]

6. Most Americans haven't seen a single dead body yet...

... so I think it's pretty significant, and ballsy, that USA Today (America's colorful, McHappyFun paper) ignored FEMA and put it on the front page of their online edition.

The New York Times ran a photo that is now notorious, and lots of TV commentators talked about the photo, but not a one of them showed it.

I'm not sure there's any significance in when the photo was taken. Dead is dead. And the federal government doesn't want us to see the photos.

[saigon68]

8. Dead is DEAD

And as long as the wizened evil Bush matron has her "BEAUTIFUL MIND" intact

THE SHEEP CAN SLEEP SOUNDLY IN THEIR HEATED WATER BEDS.

[incapsulated]

9. But FEMA didn't say "no photos of *any dead bodies*"

Only photos of bodies being recovered now. That's what all the talk has been about here on DU, covering up the death toll by censoring the recovery (which is only starting now, they weren't recovering any bodies before). Even Oprah had video of dead bodies on her show. But they can't erase what has already been documented and stop those from being shown (yet).

Perhaps putting that on the front page was a "fuck you" to FEMA.

[VolcanoJen]

10. I read it as a big "fuck you" to FEMA....

... from America's McHappyFun Paper.

Other editors might read it as "let's go ahead, then."

I imagine we'll find out soon enough.

[incapsulated]

11. Well they might

If they haven't before. But to be clear, the only thing FEMA is doing, or can do, is stop them from taking photos of the recovery of bodies going on now. I don't know if they can do this anyway, if someone happens to get a shot of a recovery and it's printed, by what right will FEMA stop them? All they can do is control the areas that are swarming with NG and military, like NOLA, not the entire gulf.

[VolcanoJen]

13. Anyone who's ever watched one of those awful hidden camera shows...

... knows there are ways around bureaucratic niceties such as memos commanding "Don't take any fuckin' pictures."

There will be hell to pay for editors that print such photos... unless big papers like USA Today and the New York Times buck the order first.

Unlike Iraq, these reporters and photographers are on American soil and might just do as they damn well please. And the foreign press, like Das Stern, could probably care less about FEMA edicts.

And I agree with saigon68 that the USA Today photo isn't even that bad.

[VolcanoJen]

16. An appropriate political cartoon for this thread.

http://content.todayscartoons.uclick.com/?feature=97961ae70f7949a7419fa5d8c3c50bf8

[zippy890]

17. USA today is right to show photos like that

its the grim truth, & we can't forget what happened

[shadowknows69]

18. FEMA should never be able to suspend freedom of the press

When all the papers just fold up and let them then it is over. Kudos to USA today for having the balls to show what must be shown.

[mopaul]

19. do we REALLY have to see that?....yes

[Oeditpus Rex]

20. And Gannett papers are not known

for bucking the system. Quite the opposite, in fact.

So this bodes well.

Although... I wouldn't be surprised now to hear about photographers being restricted by force.

[VolcanoJen]

21. Hidden cameras and the foreign press...

... will record the story for history.

Isn't it amazing, and baffling, that we even have to wonder if history will be recorded?

When you think back to other great tragedies in our history, the ones that happened long before our own lifetimes began, you realize quickly that photographs told the story, and without them, we wouldn't be able to reach back and feel the human souls affected.

As tragic and macabre as some may view photographs of the dead, history must be preserved for future generations.

I hope that Americans can see the significance of that, since this administration clearly can't, and won't.

[NVMojo]

22. New York Times didn't get the memo either ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/08/national/nationalspecial/08orleans.html?th&emc=th

Macabre Reminder: The Corpse on Union Street

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 7 - In the downtown business district here, on a dry stretch of Union Street, past the Omni Bank automated teller machine, across from a parking garage offering "early bird" rates: a corpse. Its feet jut from a damp blue tarp. Its knees rise in rigor mortis.



more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/08/national/nationalspecial/08orleans.html?th&emc=th

[izzie]

23. Just who can not take seeing a dead body?

Who is the rule for? We, as the left know they are there or is it the Right that can not take it or what? It is like the coffins from Iraq. What is the point? Not seeing then makes it even more scary. It is like bad pictures and kids always tuning in to see what their parents do not want them to see. Or every kid I knew was like that. I sure was.I may not have liked what I saw but I sure had to see what I was told I should not. I also grew up in a family that was pretty open minded. I can recall during WW2 finding the book on what the Germans were doing to people and reading it and having very bad dreams. My mother died right at end of war so I know it was during WW2.I had to be about 10.

[VolcanoJen]

34. There's a big lesson in what you wrote, izzie.

Thanks for that.

[OhioChick]

24. These photos should be shown...........

I wouldn't expect to see any more than what's already been taken thus far, though. We won't be seeing any that have been recovered. The people need to see........seeing is "believing."

[LostinVA]

25. Check out cnn's home page

It made me cry this morning. I can't take this anymore, you know?

on edit: It's been changed. It was a furry brow dog next to a covered-up corpse. The caption stated the dog has been standing guard over their master's/mistress's body and refuses to leave. Like Greyfriar Bobby or something.

And they refused to rescue animals.... I hate them so much....

[geomon666]

27. PIC WARNING sort of graphic

[LostinVA]

32. This is a different angle from the one I saw earlier

It was the one DeepModemMom has put up -- you can see the dog's sad face... poor thing. Glad to see a bowl there -- someone, hopefully, is feeding and watering him.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

26. Is there actually some FEMA policy about pictures? Any threads or links?

[Libby2]

28. All I see is red x's

anyone else?

I refreshed ??

[geomon666]

29. I see em n/t

[SheepyMcSheepster]

30. they are working for me. eom

[Ilsa]

31. They've pulled the photos already, and the link to more

photos isn't working either.

[ultraist]

33. Are the photos gone? I couldn't find them

I only saw photos of damaged buildings and rescue workers.