Quote Originally Posted by SWCAdmin View Post
in defiance of the family’s wishes
There are a great many things that the news reports on, in defiance of a family's wishes. While I agree that the AP should consider the family's wishes in their decision-making, it cannot control that decision-making, lest no family wish to have anything negative or troubling or intellectually challenging published.


My gut feeling is that the central cause for this 'debate' is a continuation of the adversarial relationship between many members of the military (and their supporters), and the news media. Given that many military-oriented folks in this country continue to see the media as an adversary responsible for the "loss" of the Vietnam War, it's almost as though they'll seize upon any excuse to blast the media, regardless of how (il)legitimate.


Unfortunately, the repeated "crying wolf" about the evil news media has resulted in some serious and legitimate debates/issues being sidelined and dismissed and lumped in the rest of the unnecessary criticism. I think there's a very serious discussion to be had about the NYT scuttling coverage of their kidnapped reporters in the name of "safety". That debate won't happen in the detail it should, because too many pro-media participants will (wrongly) ignore that discussion because they're already in a pattern of ignoring many other attempts to criticize the media.


Given than many of those attempts - like the 'outrage' over the photo of our departed Marine hero - were ill-advised and unnecessary, it's hard to blame them for shrugging off those attempts to engage in a substantive debate.