- As the nation headed for war last year, President Bush
"clamped down" on the media, extending and expanding a controversial
policy that banned reporters from photographing flag-draped caskets of
soldiers killed in combat.[1] The White House said the policy was enforced
to "spare the feelings of military families."[2] Yet, in the
very first television advertisement of his 2004 campaign, the president
has blanketed the nation's airwaves with an image of "firefighters
carrying a flag-draped body" from the 9/11 wreckage at Ground Zero.[3]
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- The hypocrisy of preventing Americans from receiving
a "reminder of the toll of war" at the very same time the president
exploits an image of a dead body for his own political gain has caused
an outrage among victims' families.[4] Chris Burke, whose brother Tom died
in the attacks, said, "Using my dead friends and my dead brother for
political expediency is dead wrong. It's wrong, it's bad taste and an insult
to the 3,000 people who died on Sept. 11."[5]
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- The president's actions have also raised new credibility
questions because he previously promised not to exploit the 9/11 attacks.
Speaking of 9/11 in January 2003, President Bush told the Associated Press
that he had "no ambition whatsoever to use this as a political issue."[6]
-
- Sources: 1. "Return of U.S. war dead kept solemn,
secret", USA Today, 12/30/2003. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-12-31-casket-usat_x.htm
- 2. "Pentagon avoids the 'Dover test'", The
News Journal, 11/26/2003. http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2003/11/26pentagonavoidst.html
- 3. "Relatives of those slain on 9-11 fault Bush
ads", Star-Telegram, 03/05/2004. http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/8113390.htm
- 4. "Return of U.S. war dead kept solemn, secret",
USA Today, 12/30/2003. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-12-31-casket-usat_x.htm
- 5. "Ads' use of 9/11 upsets families", Miami
Herald, 03/05/2004. http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/politics/8110181.htm
- 6. "Sept. 11 and Nov. 2", The New York Times,
03/05/2004. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/05/opinion/05FRI3.html
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- http://www.misleader.org/daily_mislead/Read.asp?fn=df03052004.html
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