United States Marine Corps Sergeant Major Alan J. Kellogg Jr. - Retired, (wearing shirt, center) at a memorial service in Hawaii.
WAR AND A CONSTANT DIN OF NEWSWhether they be NATO affiliated soldiers fighting in Afghanistan or innocent people caught in the crossfire somewhere else, soldiers and civilians will continue to lose their lives as the constant drumbeat of conflict rolls on in 2010.
The 24/7 news cycle continues to march alongside these occurrences, reporting events from the world's hotspots of the moment. Yet, Russian
photojournalist Alexey Pivovarov, a member of
GAIA Photos, reminds us with his photo reportage,
Searching The Forests, that its been over 68 years since Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union in the early morning of June 22, 1941.
PHOTOGRAPHING EVIL ACTS OF MANKINDMagnum Photographer Robert Capa once said, “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you are not close enough.” What did he mean by that? Current official White House photographer
Christopher Morris thinks perhaps Capa meant that, "This is the truth for good combat photography. I feel this statement was made for combat photographers, when they are trying to document the evil act of man trying to kill another man. To capture the true essence of this, you need to be close, very close."
Those thoughts by
Christopher Morris beg the question; What good is trying to visually document "the evil act of man trying to kill another man" if no one sees the ultimate truth the photography tells us?
A SOLDIER'S DECISIONIn war's heat of battle, there is little time for soldiers to ponder decisions. Reactions are the results of training and experience. This holds true for photojournalists documenting the chaos as well. When United States Marine Corps Sergeant Alan J. Kellogg Jr.
threw himself on an unexploded grenade before it detonated in Quang Nam Province, Vietnam, on May 8, 1970, he had little time to ponder his decision. The US government, after thinking it over, awarded Mr. Kellogg with the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery, as his actions saved several of his comrade's lives.
I am among thousands of others who were fortunate to have received training from Mr. Kellogg. He was our mother and our father, but his brand of love was tough because it's a serious endeavor. There is no "glory" in war and he made sure we knew it. He never mentioned even once that he'd received America's highest honor. After completing his distinguished USMC career, he began devoting his life to assisting homeless American military veterans in Hawaii, USA where he lives today.
DEATH OF A MARINEAll of us probably have thoughts about the casualties of war. We also deserve the truth about the agony it inflicts upon the fallen, their families, those who survived, such as Mr. Kellogg, and even us, the global civilization.
How do we assign a weight to the truth of war's catastrophic consequences and compare it to an individual family's wish to set the tone of their loved ones eternal legacy?
A
recent article that appeared on bxpnyc titled Death of a Marine describes why answering this question proves to be painful and difficult.
As the article states, "On August 14, 2009, US Marine Lance Corporal Joshua “Bernie” Bernard was fatally wounded in an ambush in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. In the failing evening light, Associated Press (AP) photographer Julie Jacobson, embedded with his unit, 2nd Battalion/3rd Marine Regiment, photographed the prone and bleeding Bernard flanked by two comrades. Mr. Bernard was immediately evacuated, but later
died from his wounds at a field hospital. He was 21 years old."
Conflicting opinions subsequently arose as to whether the photo includes enough of Lance Corporal Bernard’s face to establish his identity.
According to
the article, an AP reporter went to interview the Bernard family and discuss the photograph. Bernie Bernard's father beseeched the AP representative not to run the photo. Nevertheless, AP chose to do so, along with other photos, in a story titled “Death of a Marine: A Photographer’s Journal”, making it available to clients who receive its “hosted” service. Such stories are typically fed automatically to AP clients that include newspapers nationwide.
ASSOCIATED PRESS DEFENDS ITS DECISIONAP issued a written statement defending its decision and Santiago Lyon, AP’s director of photography, stated, "We feel it is our journalistic duty to show the reality of the war there, however unpleasant and brutal that sometimes is.”
THE EMBEDDED JOURNALIST'S AGREEMENT: WAS IT VIOLATED?An excerpt from the US "embed" agreement reads as follows, “Casualties may be covered by embedded media as long as the service member’s identity and unit identification is protected from disclosure until [the Assistant Deputy of Defense for Public Affairs] has officially released the name. Photography from a respectful distance or from angles at which a casualty cannot be identified is permissible; however, no recording of ramp ceremonies or remains transfers is permitted."
Seemingly everyone from US Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, to bloggers on sites such as
Captain’s Journal, a conservative blog devoted to military affairs, "hammered AP"
according to the article. In fact,
Gates wrote a letter to AP’s president saying, "Why your organization would purposefully defy the family’s wishes knowing full well that it will lead to more anguish is beyond me. Your lack of compassion and common sense in choosing to put this image of their maimed and stricken child on the front page of multiple American newspapers is appalling."
However,
as Stars and Stripes reported in August, 2009, journalists seeking to be embedded with Western forces in Afghanistan may be vetted to determine if their past work was favorable to US forces. The newspaper
published an example of a profile showing a pie chart indicating whether a particular reporter's stories were positive, neutral or negative.
The profiles are generated by The Rendon Group, a Washington-based public relations firm, as part of a $1.5 million Pentagon contract.
Stars and Stripes did not name any of the journalists who had been profiled, or say whether photographers were included. The International Federation of Journalists
condemned the practice, saying it "compromises the independence of media."
Read more at Editor & Publisher.
Please continue reading about US Marine Lance Corporal Joshua “Bernie” BernardWHAT IS THE ANSWER?So what is the answer here? Do we seek the truth about war's hardship by perusing anecdotal evidence witnesses such as Alan J. Kellogg Jr. and people like him may or may not choose to provide after their return to civilian status?
Should media people such as Julie Jacobson,
recent Pulitzer Prize winner Tyler Hicks and their organizations be allowed to show us the facts no matter how harsh the realty of war is or should people such as Bernie Bernard's father, as bereaved as he is, set the agenda regarding what we all learn?
Although I have experiences with people from "both sides of the fence", I realize that my opinion regarding these events don't matter to you and why should they for who am I to inject my own moral certitude into such a perplexing and serious affair? How would Mr. Morris,
Mr. Pivovarov, Mr. Kellogg, Bernie Bernard or any of you weigh in? I have no idea.
Rather than opine, allow me to admonish all governments and warring factions by telling them to stop putting all of us between a rock and a hard place. I'm sure most of us will agree about that in 2010.
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