Monday, March 9, 2009

'Taking Chance' and other Military things

1) What's the article about? Summarize it.
The article is about how the ban on photos of flag-cladded coffins were banned because of the privicy, or rather how Americans see the war. It talks about how they got rid of the ban and are starting to show more on the ending result of the war. No more postive, let's see negative. Bring them home type processes.

2) How does the story connect to our journalism class and journalism as a profession in general?
The story shows that journalists are prohibited from certin stories to 'protect' the government or how we, as a student newspaper, cannot show certin things because of perceptions.

3) What questions does the story leave you with after reading it? List at least two
My questions are, 'why can there be a ban when no one knows who is in the coffins?' and 'why did it take so long to take the ban off?'

4 comments:

  1. I agree that it seems like the ban was put up so that Americans wouldnt be exposed to the "bad" side of the war, which isnt necessarily fair because it means that the government is leaving us in the dark. Now that the photo ban is lifted its nice because we will be able to see the reality of war, even though it might not be what we want to see, at least we can no longer pretend it isnt happening.

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  2. It's definatly not a good thing when the government tries to hide things from the country, but also I don't know if that was their number one concern. I feel they also took the families in concern. I could be totally wrong, but I lean more towards the ban being lifted even if it is disrespectful to many families. It's the truth and something that should not be hidden.

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  3. I had that exact same question. I dont understand why the potos are invading peoples privacy when you cant even identify the people in the coffins. I think that the families know that there loved ones might be in there and that concerns them.

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  4. Great question posed at the end, Sam. I mentioned in another comment on someone else's blog that the context is likely the bigger issue. If a photo is next to a story in the local paper about a fallen local soldier, this could be a very personal image, and one a family would like to keep private. There are no easy answers on this debate. Nice job on your entry!

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