As bodies recovered, reporters are told 'no photos, no stories'

As bodies recovered, reporters are told 'no photos, no stories'

New Orleans -- A long caravan of white vans led by an Army humvee rolled Monday through New Orleans' Bywater district, a poor, mostly black neighborhood, northeast of the French Quarter.

Recovery team members wearing white protective suits and black boots stopped at houses with spray painted markings on the doors designating there were dead bodies inside.

Outside one house on Kentucky Street, a member of the Army 82nd Airborne Division summoned a reporter and photographer standing nearby and told them that if they took pictures or wrote a story about the body recovery process, he would take away their press credentials and kick them out of the state.

"No photos. No stories," said the man, wearing camouflage fatigues and a red beret.

On Saturday, after being challenged in court by CNN, the Bush administration agreed not to prevent the news media from following the effort to recover the bodies of Hurricane Katrina victims.

But on Monday, in the Bywater district, that assurance wasn't being followed. The 82nd Airborne soldier told reporters the Army had a policy that requires media to be 300 meters -- more than three football fields in length -- away from the scene of body recoveries in New Orleans. If reporters wrote stories or took pictures of body recoveries, they would be reported and face consequences, he said, including a loss of access for up-close coverage of certain military operations.


more...

Each day, just when I think it can't get any worse, it does. What is happenening in America? This almost doesn't seem real!


[edit on 13-9-2005 by loam]

Smacks of the fishiest of policies - one official version for the public and a different version for those who are operating under the orders of the government.

This goes beyond the standard lies of politicians and the progaganda machine. It is the outright deceit of a government against its citizens.

When everyone has a covert agenda and confusion reigns supreme it is time to start seriously thinking about what to do to prevent it from going any further. It can only get worse if it isn't stopped. Lest you think I am sounding ominous, I am talking about questioning the actions of those in power and to prevent them from being relected next time. It is also learning to be more observant and not so naive as to believe everything they tell us.

Whats kinda strange is that the Govt was trying to put a gag order on all press to publish no news, photo's or numbers about deathtolls in NO.


Then CNN SUED their rears and the Govt withdrew. Now instead of an overt aproach, they are just trying to gag reporters covertly on the scene, instead of trough law.

This really worries me....

How is it that American's don't think their personal freedoms are under attack, when our most basic concept of a free society- a free press- is under siege like this????

Nothing new here---look at the ultra-controlled and managed news during the Iraq war, with those ridiculous "embedded" journalists, and how that whole thing was stage-managed from the word go. Does it suck that the press is again being chained and muzzled here? Of course it does, but it seems to be the norm during big stories these days, especially since the Cheney/Bush team took over.
---Ryan

Ok, with the war it raised an eyebrow....this story raises both!

It remains to be seen if the news media which seemed to have suddenly found their balls will stand up to this. It is certainly nothing new, and I would expect this administration to try and cover up the body count, perhaps by a factor of 10.

Funny---a factor of ten is about what I was thinking, too. I've read a lot of reports that the Hurrican Andrew reports were downplayed by about a factor of five, and figuring that the Bushies are twice as brazen, deflating the body count by a factor of about ten sounds just right for them.
---Ryan

Interesting....

First there are reports that there may not be as many dead bodies as first believed, then they want to prevent the press from reporting on the recovery of the bodies. Not that there's anything to hide or anything like that, but why wouldn't the goverment want the press to report the recovery of dead bodies? What could they possibly have to gain from this?

[edit on 13-9-2005 by Mirlin11]

with all the talk about the forced evacuations and the toxic waters and then BlackWater in the area...

maybe there is lethal viruses that have been released into the water from labs in the area and photographic proof would say a million words.

no wonder there is a ban on reporters/photographers

Read this thread also:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Adds another dimension to the story.

You keep finding the good stuff man. I salute you.

This story almost needs a thread of its own, but I'll keep it here....

Outrageous....

Police Violence Against Journalists in New Orleans

Reporters Without Borders voiced concern today about police violence against journalists covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, especially about the attacks on reporters and photographers that took place on September 1.

...

Reporter Tim Harper and photographer Lucas Oleniuk of the Canadian Toronto Star daily were the victims of police violence while covering a clash between police and looters. The police threatened them several times at gunpoint and, when they realized Oleniuk had photographed them hitting looters, they hurled him to the ground, grabbed his two cameras and removed memory cards containing around 350 pictures. His press card was also torn from him. When he asked for his pictures back, the police insulted him and threatened to hit him.

Harper said in a report about the police violence in the Toronto Star that, given the situation in New Orleans, there was not doubt that the police saw journalists as an obstacle to their efforts to regain control of the city.

A second incident involved Gordon Russell of the New Orleans-based Times-Picayune daily as he was covering a shoot-out between police and local residents near the convention centre where hurricane victims were awaiting evacuation. The police detained Russell and smashed all of his equipment on the ground. Russell was forced to flee to avoid further violence and reportedly left the city the same day.

What was that about our free press? We must look like the biggest hypocrites on the planet to rest of the world..... Unbelieveable.

I'd hate for the last picture of me to be of me dead, bloated, floating, with my skin falling off and my eye sockets full of maggets, too. And in case anyone needs to know this, I'll put it in my will and living will.

Freedom of the press, not over my dead body!!

Do you really want to know what a dead body looks like after two+ weeks in toxic contaminated water?

Yummy.

[edit on 14-9-2005 by Esoteric Teacher]

Originally posted by Esoteric Teacher
I'd hate for the last picture of me to be of me dead, bloated, floating, with my skin falling off and my eye sockets full of maggets, too.

Sounds like my drivers license photo

The only problem I have with this is without reporters being free to do their job I will find it hard to believe ANYTHING the government says about this tragedy

I'd hate for the last picture of me to be of me dead, bloated, floating, with my skin falling off and my eye sockets full of maggets, too. And in case anyone needs to know this, I'll put it in my will and living will.

I can understand barring photography to protect the privacy of the dead, but barring news coverage in its entirety, no stories from the disaster recovery area or your press status is revoked and your ejected from the state?

These are dark days.

Originally posted by Amuk

Originally posted by Esoteric Teacher
I'd hate for the last picture of me to be of me dead, bloated, floating, with my skin falling off and my eye sockets full of maggets, too.

Sounds like my drivers license photo

The only problem I have with this is without reporters being free to do their job I will find it hard to believe ANYTHING the government says about this tragedy

It has been my first hand experience that prevents me from believing reporters, or more to the point: The government contractors that run thier organizational networks. The only thing I believe about the government is they are more informed than the citizens, and we can only hope they have the moral and ethical drive to attend to that information in a way that is not most self serving for the individuals we the people empower.

I'm sorry about your drivers license photo.

Originally posted by boogyman

I'd hate for the last picture of me to be of me dead, bloated, floating, with my skin falling off and my eye sockets full of maggets, too. And in case anyone needs to know this, I'll put it in my will and living will.

I can understand barring photography to protect the privacy of the dead, but barring news coverage in its entirety, no stories from the disaster recovery area or your press status is revoked and your ejected from the state?

These are dark days.

We've been in the dark ages ever since the rulers of the world started recording their version of history.

Dark days indeed.

We need outside conformation because of stuff like this

www.abovetopsecret.com...

and if you think my drivers license was bad you should have seen my year book



[edit on 14-9-2005 by Amuk]

It is becoming imperically evident that the head of this current administration owes entirely too many evil-doers to properly react in an emergency situation.

Funny thing is that a week before all of this the mother of the soldier that died in Iraq was getting a lot of press for hounding Bush on vacation. I distinctly remember someone saying "how many before Bush admits a mistake was made?".

A little more than 2 weeks after Katrina and we might have an answer, as soon as Bush's buddies get overpaid for getting all the bodies out of the streets.