thoughts on banned photos

[craig]

Banned photos is a little heavy. I think the headline says it better "U.S. agency blocks photos of New Orleans dead". The overwhelming work that is going on leaves no room for dork photographer to climb on board. It is important to stay out of their way.

Seems to me they only said you could not get on an agency boat. Why not get on your own boat and get the shot you want? As Journalists we capture events. Bodies floating around are part of the deal. May be essential to completing what the photographer saw?

I know for sure that we do not need to to see dead bodies floating on CNN. The editorial decisions made in that newsroom are in the toilet.

 

[Mitica100]

First, I promise not to go on a political diatribe here...

I agree with danalec and arty, documenting such a calamity is not necessary but it's needed. There are many images from the WWII that still haunt me today, namely the pictures of the concentration camps, the bodies being bulldozed and buried. I'm sure you all have seen these images. Yes, they are disturbing. Yes, they are sickening. But they will always help us remember the horrors of that war.

Now, I can't compare the WWII horrors with what's happening in New Orleans. But the fact is that there were victims of Katrina, victims which will be remembered. Having pictures of these horrors will most likely make us think twice before acting one way or another in the wake of a natural disaster.

I simply don't agree with banning any photographer from taking pictures there as long as that process does not disturb in any way the process of saving lives. Allowing the ban is letting go of our freedoms and liberties. We cannot let that happen. We might not like what the images are portraying, we might get upset over seeing horrors like that but we shouldn't put a stop to the process of documenting. Otherwise we'll fall into a totalitarian society and that ain't pretty. I ought to know, I lived in one for 31 years.

That's my 2 cents here... Peace now.

 

[LizM]

Never thought I'd agree with FEMA on anything but last I heard all they did was ask that photographers show restraint for the sake of the families...and they refused to waste rescue boat space on a couple of journalists.

Personally, if I were there I would be taking every shot of the dead I could - truly for ID purposes. Historical value wise, the shots would need to be held for probably 10 years. I still cringe when I see the footage of the towers burning and those little black dots I now know to be people litterally raining down. But the information has/had to be recorded. Visual information is one of the strongest types of information we have and we can't just ignore such a powerful medium.

 

[bace]

I watched CNN last night and they were talking about this. An interesting point was made by one of the reporters. I think people that are taking pictures for these weird sites are gross.

In terms of TV reporting, if the image is significant enough to show the severity, and doesn't identify the dead. Then there is a reason for that image to be shown. We do need so see the tragedy as it is. If you don't show that people died, we'll never see how tragic this is.