Life After Jerusalem: Pissed!

Monday, March 15, 2010

Pissed!

A couple things have pissed me off today:

Annoyance 1: One of the reporters [ON EDIT: Penny Starr from CNS News] at the Daily Press Briefing was grilling Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley on why we made a big deal about murders of the Americans serving at Consulate Ciudad Juarez and not the dozens of Americans who are killed there in drug violence. The answer is, for the same reason that we talk about soldiers being killed in Iraq but not dual American nationals there. Because while we value all American life, and indeed, all human life, we are talking about people who are in a place at the service of the Nation. It is the ultimate sacrifice of service, not an unfortunate tragedy befalling a tourist or a duel national. More Americans besides Victoria DeLong were killed in Haiti, but she died in the service of our country.

Annoyance 2: What the hell is the New York Times thinking putting a picture of the two dead Americans online?!

13 comments:

Jen said...: Wow. Just went to NYT and I am speechless. How could they? The insensitivity is mind-boggling!; 5:22 PM
Z. Marie said...: I was just telling my husband about that reporter at the briefing! I thought it was a bit surreal.
And the New York Times photo was just plain wrong.; 5:40 PM
Digger said...: I actually clicked on the photo because I couldn't tell what it was, and was mortified. Then I saw today's hard copy, and the picture was huge. Really disgusting, and not what I'd expect from NYT.

As one person in my office pointed out, their child was in the back seat and survived. She will grow up with that as one of her primary images of her parents.; 7:12 PM
fsowannabe said...: I'm speechless. Just disgusting on the part of the NYT.; 7:56 PM
Bryn said...: The picture was disgusting and disrespectful!!; 8:41 PM
Anonymous said...: It's also worth mentioning that since PJ is spokesman for the State Department he would understandably make a "big deal" about the murder of an agency employee. CNS "News" is a bit of a joke anyway.; 11:30 PM
Anonymous said...: Thanks for this post. It meant a lot to me. I was really surprised that the NYT would go to such a low. Nice to know that there is some sanity out there.

And the press conference ticked me off too. We were assigned here (not CJ but another less than quiet border post) and our whole family can't relocate together until the tour is done. We can choose to be split up but that is it. End of story. We have Mexican and American friends who have moved out of border towns and into other places in both countries. We don't have that option.
-FS Border Mama; 12:04 AM
Anonymous said...: The picture is disgusting. Just because Mexican media shows horrible pictures doesn't mean the U.S. media should stoop to the same level. Had this been a U.S. soldier plastered across the front of the NYT like this, people would be up in arms about it.

This also just compounds the fact that the news is not so easy to read when you are living it.

- on the border, but not in CJ.; 12:50 AM
TSB said...: I, too, was astounded that the NYT would run that photo, which is something you might expect from a third-rate tabloid. I didn't see that photo used by any of the Mexican new media, by the way.

I'm sending a letter to the NYT asking them what they were thinking.; 11:09 AM
Anonymous said...: You can direct your comments to Clark Hoyt, Public Editor at the New York Times: public@nytimes.com; 9:15 PM
Anonymous said...: Why does it seem like when really bad and suspicious stuff happens the department tries to keep us in the dark? If I get murdered abroad will they delay the release of the story and then let it be surrounded by questions until people just forget? Remember Curacao?

That scares me more than the NYT photo. Ok, there might be an investigation going on...but it more seems like everything is brushed under the rug.; 5:23 PM
Digger said...: I don't think it is a cover up.

There are a couple things at play here. First they are limited by law in terms of what they can say about American citizens. Because I am in Public Affairs, I know that in the case of the most recently killed Americans (in both Mexico and Haiti), they were working immediately to release the information, but had to get family permission.

The second issue is media ADHD. The Curacao investigation I believe is ongoing, but there is nothing new. And we all know how quickly the press loses interest in a story.; 10:01 AM
Consul-At-Arms said...: I've quoted you and linked to you here: http://consul-at-arms2.blogspot.com/2010/04/re-pissed.html; 3:20 PM