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Phillip Blanchard
 Post subject: Well, it's a coffin, and it's flag-draped, so it stand
PostPosted: Sat Apr 24, 2004 9:52 am 
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Joined: Sun Apr 07, 2002 1:01 am
Posts: 8342
Location: Bethesda, Md.
WASHINGTON — Several news organizations used pictures of coffins bearing the remains of the seven astronauts killed aboard space shuttle Columbia last year but said they were the remains of casualties from the Iraq war.
The pictures of the astronauts' coffins were among the 361 photographs of caskets being unloaded at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware that the Air Force released this week. The Associated Press, The Washington Post and CNN were among the news organizations that incorrectly described the photos. <p>The photos came from the Web site Memory Hole, which seems to be down. The photo on its main display page, widely republished, is among the photos that turned out not to have anything to do with Iraq.<p>Image<p>***This is an odd story. The "news" wasn't that dead soldiers are coming home in flag-draped coffins, but rather that pictures of the coffins became available. In the rush to publish, editors jumped to conclusions and ran pictures without knowing what they showed--always a dangerous practice.***<p>It is a story that will have journalism professors, conspiracy theorists and free speech advocates confused, amused and most likely up-in-arms until the next media scandal appears (Space.com)<p>***Sadly, that's true. Brace yourselves. We're about to restate and codify our photo policies, which isn't a bad idea, except we all know that we don't run photos unless we have verified what they show. It was an embarrasing performance that will divert attention from the issue at hand, which was ....***<p>[ April 24, 2004: Message edited by: blanp ]</p>
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Bumfketeer
 Post subject: Re: Well, it's a coffin, and it's flag-draped, so it stand
PostPosted: Sat Apr 24, 2004 6:55 pm 
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Joined: Fri Nov 15, 2002 1:01 am
Posts: 3557
Location: Cusp of retirement, grave or both
When I worked in Syracuse, an overwrought wire editor once made a horrible flub on a caption of a local kid's remains being brought home after the Beirut barracks bombing.<p>The caption, A1 color, referred to an honor guard carrying the young soldier's "flag-draped coffee." <p>His family was pretty damned mad.
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