'Man Down’: When One Bullet Alters Everything
They've got this write up accompanied by a VIDEO and a photo of Army Staff Sgt. Hector Leija, 27 after he was shot! A friggin' video and a photo of him on the stretcher.
Imagine being the parents of this man, the siblings or relatives or the friends and discovering there is a video of your loved one being killed for the world to watch.
The images showed Leija after he was struck in the head by a single bullet during a patrol Jan. 24 in Baghdad.
An article about Leija and others on patrol, and a photograph of him on a stretcher hours before he died, was printed in the New York Times on Monday. Video of Leija before and after he was shot was posted on paper's Web site later in the day. It was still available for viewing on the Times' Web site Wednesday night.
Army commanders in Baghdad maintained that the Times violated a signed agreement, as a condition for being embedded with Leija's unit, not to publish images of any wounded soldier without the service member's consent. As a result, Times reporter Damien Cave and a contract photographer for the newspaper, Robert Nickelberg, were banned at least temporarily from embedding with U.S. units.
Oh, let's not forget that a contractual agreement has been broken. But as Michelle Malkin puts it, this agreement doesn't apply to the NYT.
The insensitivity of the media in the last couple of days has really crossed the line in my book when it comes to the soldiers and their families. This kind of crap is unforgiveable and will not be forgotten.
Oh, we see this kind of violence on TV all the time. But it isn't REAL!!! This is someones child who isn't covered in fake blood or movie screen make-up! This is a human being being used for the entertainment of the damn media who wants to shock the world with the atrocities of war! And it is wrong, it is a horrible thing to do. An insensitive thing to do!
The Washington Post and the New York Times can both rot in hell as far as I'm concerned!
N.Y. Times to apologize for photo, video of soldier
An apology...a little too little too late! And it means nothing when this is still at their website.
A link to Hector's MySpace: BOUND BY HONOR
May he rest in Peace and my thoughts are with his family and friends not only for this loss but for the bitter callousness of a media that feels it's their right to pour salt into the wounds of their heartache!
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