The Fallen Marine Photo

“America is not at war. The Marine Corps is at war; America is at the mall.”

A couple weeks ago I wrote about whether is was appropriate to publish a photo of Marine Lance Corporal Joshua Bernard being tended by two comrades after he was wounded in Afghanistan. He later died from his wounds. I posted my thoughts and a link to the photo on my blog on the website of my employer. Within a few days I got a stern chat from the editor and managing editor and was told to take down the post. I guess it had to do with the fact that my opinion differed from the paper’s position on the photo and I posted before the editor had a chance to run a column about the issue in the paper three – 1, 2, 3 – days after the AP story about Lance Cpl. Bernard ran. I posted my thoughts the day before the AP story was published though I did not discuss the editors’ decision nor did I say what the paper decided to do. I provided a link, which I was informed was equal to putting the picture on the newspaper’s site. I disagreed with that point but whatever, it isn’t my newspaper so I removed the post.

The New York Times’ Lens blog addresses the aftermath of the release of the photo far more eloquently than I could hope to so check it out here. The quote I opened up with was from a photo by Getty’s John Moore that leads off the column.