This is a true victory for our democracy, as the government has decided it will not fight the law suit filed by CNN to allow access to coverage of body searches.
And, as testament to the sensitivity of FEMA and those engaged in recovery in New Orleans as to public perception of their operation, even General Honore is trying to explain what he really meant by the initial media ban in the first place.
Joint Task Force Katrina “has no plans to bar, impede or prevent news media from their news gathering and reporting activities in connection with the deceased Hurricane Katrina victim recovery efforts,” said Col. Christian E. deGraff, representing the task force.
U.S. District Court Judge Keith Ellison issued a temporary restraining order Friday against a “zero access” policy announced earlier in the day by Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who is overseeing the federal relief effort in the city, and Terry Ebbert, the city’s homeland security director.
In explaining the ban, Ebbert said, “we don’t think that’s proper” to let members of the media view the bodies.
Army Lt. Col. Richard Steele, a member of Honore’s staff, told CNN Saturday night that Honore was partly misunderstood. Steele said Honore meant that no media would be allowed to be imbedded with teams recovering bodies. However, recovery groups would not prevent reporters from doing their jobs, he added.
CNN News Group President Jim Walton crowed for their victory, “We are pleased by the decision. The free flow of information is vital for a free society.”
Would that you would apply the same standards to coverage of the war in Iraq, Jim, and allow our democracy to view the full extent of our capability for destruction.
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In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny, which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.
To that new order we oppose the greater conception — the moral order. A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear.
Since the beginning of our American history, we have been engaged in change — in a perpetual peaceful revolution — a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly adjusting itself to changing conditions — without the concentration camp or the quick-lime in the ditch. The world order that we seek, is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society.
This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women; and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose.
Patriots
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It has always bothered me that our government refuses to let us see the dead in Iraq and now wants to shield us from seeing them in New Orleans. I find it rather telling of the gov. that they are going to be caught with their pants down in these matters.
When it comes to our own, we have and the need to see our dead and to do something in the future to prevent it from happening again. Not only in Iraq but on the domestic side ie, NO, as well. This might keep them honest in lots of issues. It is morbid to say this but it will mean lots on the finincial front of issues. It will keep the gov. in the active mode to keep it from happening ever again. This is just a couple of reasons, for instance…
This is great news, as I was becoming concerned that an Orwellian downgrade of the total number of victims was already in play. ie. “… bodies found so far were less than expected…”
How the hell would they know that anyway, they’ve hardly begun the process?
After overhearing comments on the Katrina disaster at a wedding reception last night in rural ND, I can assure you that a great many have not yet realized the true picture of the human catastrophe.
Media coverage of the search for victims is essential in creating a willingness to both help the survivors and fund the rebuilding.