For this blog I would like to talk about two very different cover ups. The first being Art Spiegelman’s in Maus: A Survivor’s Tale. The second is from the military-centered website, The Line of Departure in an article entitled “When Truth is Outlawed…”
Art Spiegelman’s cover up is really a tool to accentuate his point. He uses animals in a comic book format to illustrate his father’s story of surviving the Holocaust. As I was reading through the book this approach really drove his point home. I found myself reading about Jews getting murdered or other terrible things and I would sporadically forget that it was all real. This happened to me several times and each time I came to this realization. I was reminded of how messed up it all was. It is a very unique approach and one that worked quite well on me.
In “When the Truth is Outlawed…” Jamie McIntyre writes about a previous debate between the military and press over whether or not a picture of a mortally wounded American soldier should be shown to the public. Ultimately, the military said it was the discretionary call of the press and the picture was shown. After this the military was quite angry and now has adopted a policy which bans video or still images of any American soldier deaths.
McIntyre feels that the military has gone too far for these reasons:
I certainly understand the intention of the policy, to protect the families of servicemembers from the pain and anguish of seeing photographs of their loved ones splashed across the media, but the heavy-handed ban smacks too much of an attempt to sanitize the war…
He believes that this will set a precedent of military censorship that can continue to “hide under the guise of respect for the dead…” The dead should be respected. But, like everything else, it should be for the right reasons; not as an attempt to sway public support.
It’s kind of funny how cover-ups can be used to both emphasize and hide the truth…
Jamie McIntyre
The Line of Departure.com
October 15, 2009
I think the military is right to place a ban on the issuing of photos or videos of the death of American soldiers. I think that a military family would be traumatized to see their loved one on the 6 o’clock news in that type of situation. Having a brother-in-law over in Afghanistan, I know how greatly troubled his parents, wife, and brother would be to see something like that while they are grieving a very new loss. I would think that the photos could be used years after the event with permission from the family but to plaster it on throughout the media hours after the family learns of the death is not appropriate. I am glad that there are protections for the military families that lose a loved one. I do not think that anyone needs any more convincing that war is brutal and these images only make the situation worse for those that are hurting. Some people may be interested in the happenings of the war in the Middle East, but I do not believe that their is a necessity for such graphic and personal images to be publicly broadcast.
Censorship is always a touchy subject because it almost always seems to come down to a moral and personal debate rather than a logical debate. It seems cruel to post a picture of a dead soldier or marine anywhere in the media, however covering it up for the wrong reasons is completely ridiculous. To censor the media or speech is a direct infringement on our rights as Americans, however it censoring it for the right reasons is extremely justified. Logically though, aside from emotion or connection to the subject, it really is far too cruel to post these pictures. It is a direct hit to the families of the fallen and I don’t think those extremes need to be taken to convince anyone that war is hell.