President Obama Says Dover Photo Ban "Under Review"
By Donald R. Winslow
© 2009 News Photographer magazine
WASHINGTON, DC (February 9, 2009) - During his first live prime-time televised press conference, President Barack Obama told the nation tonight that the policy of banning media coverage and photographs of America's war dead returning home in flag-draped coffins at Dover Air Force Base is "in the process of being reviewed."
Since 1991 and the Persian Gulf War the media have been banned from covering the arrival of flag-draped coffins at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. The air base is the military's largest mortuary facility, where the bodies of soldiers killed in overseas action are prepared for burial before they are sent to famalies and hometown cemeteries across the United States.
CNN's Ed Henry asked the President, "There's a Pentagon policy that bans media coverage of the flag-draped coffins coming in to Dover Air Force Base. And back in 2004, then-Senator Joe Biden [who represented Delaware at the time] said it was shameful for dead soldiers to be, quote, 'snuck back into the country under the cover of night.' You've promised unprecedented transparency, openness in your government. Will you overturn that policy so the American people can see the full human cost of war?"
President Obama responded, "Your question is timely. We got reports that four American service members have been killed in Iraq today. And, you know, obviously, our thoughts and prayers go out to the families. I've said before that – you know, people have asked me, when did it hit you that you are now President? And what I told them was the most sobering moment is signing letters to the families of our fallen heroes. It reminds you of the responsibilities that you carry in this office and – and the consequences of the decisions that you make.
"Now, with respect to the policy of opening up media to loved ones being brought back home, we are in the process of reviewing those policies in conversations with the Department of Defense, so I don't want to give you an answer now before I've evaluated that review and understand all the implications involved."
The President then went on to talk about troop levels in Afghanistan and the process of the war in that country, saying, "This is going to be a big challenge."
In his response to CNN's Henry, Obama did not mention Rep. Walter B. Jones' Fallen Hero Commemoration Act, reintroduced this year in the 111th Congress by Jones as HR 269. Jones is a Republican from North Carolina.
Supported by the National Press Photographers Association, HR 269 would lift the ban on photographic and media coverage of the remains of American military personnel arriving at military installations in the United States, removing a Bush administration and Defense Department policy that put a ban on coverage of America's war dead returning home.
The Fallen Hero Commemoration Act has received letters of support from NPPA's president Bob Carey and from NPPA's general legal counsel, Mickey H. Osterreicher. NPPA's leadership has also asked the organization's members to send their elected representatives letters of support for the measure.
"To deny media coverage of the return of our fallen heroes is a brazen attempt by the military to deny history," Osterreicher said. "While our government tries to bring liberty and democracy to all corners of the world it lately seems to have forgotten that those freedoms are no less important at home."
"We agree that by once again permitting access to accredited members of the media at the arrival of the remains of fallen service members at U.S. military installations, this legislation would not only honor those who have given their lives in defense of our Nation but also uphold the freedoms for which they gave the ultimate sacrifice."
On the vast concrete tarmac at Dover, the solemn ceremony of soldiers and chaplains and honor guards welcoming home the bodies of America's war dead has been carried out with no media present, in secret, since the ban began.
Daily news photographs of flag-draped caskets arriving at Dover were common in the newspapers and on nightly news during the Vietnam War, so much so that the phrase "The Dover Test" was used by analysts to determine the public's tolerance or intolerance for growing war casualties. The pictures helped shift public opinion about the conflict and more and more Americans became opposed to the country's efforts in Southeast Asia.
Among many Americans and on Capitol Hill there's been a growing movement to bring the Dover photographic ban to an end, and Congressman Jones has taken the first step by introducing last year HR 6662 and this year the bill's revised version, HR 269.
Jones says that he wants to make sure that the American public remembers that the country is at war, and that American soldiers are dying in battle. The bill will allow credentialed media members to photograph Dover's military ceremonies as bodies of soldiers killed on active duty return home, as well as covering flag-draped coffins arriving at any military installation.
“Throughout the history of our Nation, members of the United States Armed Forces have selflessly given their lives to secure and protect the freedoms Americans enjoy today," Rep. Jones said. "Today, our military is serving our nation in Iraq, Afghanistan and many other parts of the world. Without a loved one serving in the military, it is sometimes possible for Americans to overlook the sacrifices that have been made – and continue to be made – by members of the Armed Forces on behalf of our Nation.
"By once again permitting access to accredited members of the media at military commemoration ceremonies, memorial services conducted by the Armed Forces, and the arrival of the remains of fallen service members at U.S. military installations, this legislation would honor those who have given their lives in defense of our Nation," Jones said.
A new HBO movie about America's war dead returning home for burial and military honors, "Taking Chance" staring Kevin Bacon, will premier on Saturday, February 21, at 8 p.m. EST. Emotional, timely, and beautifully photographed, the trailer for the new movie is online here.
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