Getting Ahead of the Pentagon:
- Separately, the Pentagon sent news organizations a memo requesting that they “not air or publish recognizable images or audio recordings that identify POWs. Additionally, we request you not use their names, first or last, or their unit, until next-of-kin notification is complete.” The memo made the same request for the deceased soldiers, citing “respect for the families” and “the principles of the Geneva Conventions.”
The issue sparked a disagreement when ABC anchor Charles Gibson told viewers it was “simply disrespectful” to show the dead bodies. “Nightline” anchor Ted Koppel said from Iraq that he had earlier shown pictures of dead Iraqi soldiers in a way that they could not be identified.
Because the media are “ginning up patriotic feelings” before a war, Koppel said, “I feel we do have an obligation to remind people in the most graphic way that war is a dreadful thing. . . . Young Americans are dying. Young Iraqis are dying. To turn our faces away from that is a mistake. . . . To sanitize it too much is a dreadful mistake.”