Bodies? What bodies?

September 8, 2005 11:19 AM

FEMA blocks photos of Katrina's dead - under heavy criticism for poor disaster management, FEMA has stopped allowing reporters to accompany rescue missions and asked that the press not show pictures of dead bodies. With a few reports of violence against reporters, could those pesky journalists be pissing off the wrong people?
posted by mrgrimm (5 comments total)

Double post?
posted by duck at 11:21 AM on September 8, 2005

Dude
posted by Decani at 11:22 AM on September 8, 2005

it's deja vu all over again
posted by pyramid termite at 11:23 AM on September 8, 2005

It seems they are actively trying to keep reporters from reporting. Here's something from Brian Williams' blog:

At that same fire scene, a police officer from out of town raised the muzzle of her weapon and aimed it at members of the media... obvious members of the media... armed only with notepads. Her actions (apparently because she thought reporters were encroaching on the scene) were over the top and she was told. There are automatic weapons and shotguns everywhere you look. It's a stance that perhaps would have been appropriate during the open lawlessness that has long since ended on most of these streets. Someone else points out on television as I post this: the fact that the National Guard now bars entry (by journalists) to the very places where people last week were barred from LEAVING (The Convention Center and Superdome) is a kind of perverse and perfectly backward postscript to this awful chapter in American history.

posted by missmerrymack at 11:23 AM on September 8, 2005

Missmerrymack, that's astonishing to read. Really. What danger do the press pose, aside from showing what's really happening in the city? Oops, look like I answered my own question.

And, nice double!
posted by fenriq at 11:31 AM on September 8, 2005