Casket photos honor sacrifice, not sensation
Last week President Obama said he would consider lifting the ban on photos of military caskets being brought home. The ban clearly violates First Amendment rights. Photographers have a right to capture the images of fallen soldiers returning home. This doesn’t have to be an issue of sentiment for it to be constitutionally wrong. Very clearly, in black ink, the First Amendment grants free speech and the liberty of the press. More than that, it violates the right of a nation to grieve its losses. How can America see the true costs of war if there’s a ban on that very image? Family rights groups want the press to be able to attend at the family’s request. Many believe that showing the caskets would be letting the nation grieve with them. The ban, according to the Washington Post, was put in place after George H.W. Bush held a press conference at the Dover Air Force Base where he was joking in front of the caskets of soldiers being removed from the plane. Shortly after, he enacted the ban, citing privacy rights of the very families that sometimes want the caskets to be shown. Vice President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Robert Gates have both voiced approval for removing the ban, also according to the Washington Post. The argument posed by both the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars is ridiculous. There are no names on the caskets, so it is in no way an invasion of privacy, just a way of making real the costs of war. There’s no way for photographers to know the identity of those in the caskets. Seeing caskets returning home from war is emotionally affecting, but it’s not gruesome or sensationalistic. President Obama should lift the ban on photos of them.
