Published: April 19, 2004 6:00 PM EST
NEW YORK Last week, photos of flag-draped coffins in Kuwait containing the bodies of Americans killed in Iraq surfaced on scattered Internet sites, such as the Drudge Report. The photos were not credited and no major news organization would touch them. But Sunday, a
similar image appeared on the front page of The Seattle Times. The picture arrived amid rising debate over the Bush administration's strict ban on media outlets taking photos of soldiers' coffins offloaded at U.S. military bases.
"The administration cannot tell us what we can and cannot publish," David Boardman, managing editor at The Seattle Times, told E&P Monday afternoon. "The photo may have been seen as an unnecessarily provocative anti-war sentiment," Boardman said, but he explained, "We weren't attempting to convey any sort of political message." He added that so far, phone calls and e-mails from readers have been "overwhelmingly positive."
The image used was not taken by a journalist, but by a Seattle-area resident working on contract at the U.S. military section of Kuwait International Airport. The photo depicts several flag-draped coffins being loaded into a cargo plane for the trip home. The Times received the picture in the middle of last week but waited to publish until its context could be determined.
"We wanted to make sure we understood and respected the circumstances and spirit in which the photograph was taken," said Cole Porter, the paper's photo director. "We found it was taken out of respect for the process and the dignity with which the soldiers remains are treated."
In an accompanying article published in the Times, staff reporter Hal Bernton explained the rituals
involving "prayers, salutes and hands on hearts" before the caskets are placed in cargo holds for
a flight to Germany. "Everyone salutes with such emotion and intensity and respect," said Tami Silicio, the woman who took the picture, in Sunday's story. "The families would be proud to see
their sons and daughters saluted like that."
While the paper was mindful some readers would be offended by the image, it still saw good
reason to publish it. "This picture gives our readers a look at a view of the war that until now we
have been unable to provide them," Porter said.
