Move Over, Water Tiger
Water Tiger has a wonderful graphic over at Dependable Renegade, a stick person pounding his head on his desk in frustration. I feel like that a lot, and I felt like that this morning after reading this article in today's Washington Post.
Gina Gray, who had been the public affairs director of Arlington National Cemetery, was fired June 27, presumably for objecting to a new set of restrictions on media coverage of funerals of those soldiers killed in Iraq. She felt the restrictions did not comply with Army regulations, so she pushed back, a courageous but obviously unwise thing to do these days.
After assuming her director position three months ago, Gray discovered that cemetery officials were trying to impose new media restrictions on funerals of Iraq war dead, despite families of the fallen having granted permission for coverage.
Gray believed the new restrictions were wrong and were not supported by Army regulations, The Post reported. But she was demoted six weeks after The Post first reported on her attempts to restore news coverage, and she was fired on June 27.
"Had I not put my foot down, had I just gone along with it and not said regulations were being violated, I'm sure I'd still be there," Gray told The Post, calling her firing retaliatory. "It's about doing the right thing." [Emphasis added]
Right from the inception of this misbegotten and illegal war, the Pentagon and the White House have clamped down on news coverage, obviously determined not to make the same mistakes made during the Viet Nam War. The news was controlled by "embedding" journalists in military units and giving the reporters a stern set of rules on what could and what could not be reported. News organizations were told that they could not publish photographs of the flag draped coffins arriving back in the US from the battle field. The intent was obvious: if the war was kept at a distance from the US public, if that public did not see the obvious consequences of war, then there would be little chance that the DFH peaceniks could move the country against the war as they had during the Viet Nam era.
This time, however, the Pentagon just might have over reached. Yes, funerals, any funerals, should not be over-run by a media circus. However, in some cases, families had granted permission to journalists to cover the funerals, presumably because they wanted their friends and neighbors to understand that the loved ones who died in honorable service to the nation had died as heroes. That's certainly not hard to understand or to appreciate. Gina Gray obviously understood and appreciated those feelings, but the Pentagon and White House obviously didn't, or (and this is more likely) didn't care.
The story isn't quite over, fortunately. Army Secretary Pete Geren has asked for an internal review of Ms. Gray's firing. While I'm not too optimistic about the outcome of that review, at least the pressure from the press has had some effect.
Gina Gray, who had been the public affairs director of Arlington National Cemetery, was fired June 27, presumably for objecting to a new set of restrictions on media coverage of funerals of those soldiers killed in Iraq. She felt the restrictions did not comply with Army regulations, so she pushed back, a courageous but obviously unwise thing to do these days.
After assuming her director position three months ago, Gray discovered that cemetery officials were trying to impose new media restrictions on funerals of Iraq war dead, despite families of the fallen having granted permission for coverage.
Gray believed the new restrictions were wrong and were not supported by Army regulations, The Post reported. But she was demoted six weeks after The Post first reported on her attempts to restore news coverage, and she was fired on June 27.
"Had I not put my foot down, had I just gone along with it and not said regulations were being violated, I'm sure I'd still be there," Gray told The Post, calling her firing retaliatory. "It's about doing the right thing." [Emphasis added]
Right from the inception of this misbegotten and illegal war, the Pentagon and the White House have clamped down on news coverage, obviously determined not to make the same mistakes made during the Viet Nam War. The news was controlled by "embedding" journalists in military units and giving the reporters a stern set of rules on what could and what could not be reported. News organizations were told that they could not publish photographs of the flag draped coffins arriving back in the US from the battle field. The intent was obvious: if the war was kept at a distance from the US public, if that public did not see the obvious consequences of war, then there would be little chance that the DFH peaceniks could move the country against the war as they had during the Viet Nam era.
This time, however, the Pentagon just might have over reached. Yes, funerals, any funerals, should not be over-run by a media circus. However, in some cases, families had granted permission to journalists to cover the funerals, presumably because they wanted their friends and neighbors to understand that the loved ones who died in honorable service to the nation had died as heroes. That's certainly not hard to understand or to appreciate. Gina Gray obviously understood and appreciated those feelings, but the Pentagon and White House obviously didn't, or (and this is more likely) didn't care.
The story isn't quite over, fortunately. Army Secretary Pete Geren has asked for an internal review of Ms. Gray's firing. While I'm not too optimistic about the outcome of that review, at least the pressure from the press has had some effect.
Labels: Free Press, Iraq War, Pentagon
posted by Diane at 4:37 AM
4 Comments:
Someone might want tlook at the SCOTUS recent decision on retaliation in the workplace...
The shrub'ites are relentlessly shameless.
~
P.S. Waiter, a round of fizzy beverages for everybody!
jocabel wrote:
The merciful designation will not apply to this administration, even past its very welcome end. There has never been a more self-serving executive branch, and none has done such damage to public welfare. No surprise that the EPA, subject to the White House, refuses to perform its functions for the public good. The enabling of such a betrayal of trust must shame any responsible parties, including this editorial staff.
7/12/2008 2:49:29 AM
Recommend (5)
ifthethunderdontgetya wrote:
Fred Hiatt scribbled:
No matter which man is elected, the see-no-evil approach of the Bush administration will come to a merciful end.
---------------------------
That would be the see no evil Bush administration you have enabled and lied for from day one, Fred.
Resign, you shameless neocon liar.
~
7/11/2008 11:53:41 PM
Recommend (5)
Hi, thunder, and really, I didn't read your comment first, guess that great minds thinking alike stuff works - heh.
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