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| Dec. 19, 2004- Associated Press -- Wounded Soldier This image shows an American soldier who had been seriously wounded in Iraq. He later died from these injuries. Would you run this photo? On front page of newspaper and on website: Journalists: 40% / Readers: 30% On inside page of newspaper and on website: On website only: Only link to an outside source from website: Would not run image at all: |
This image, which shows medics attending to a soldier who later died from his injuries, brought competing concerns into stark relief. Is honoring the heroic efforts of American troops important enough to sacrifice the privacy of a wounded family?
Respondents on both sides found an answer in the same place: the wedding ring on the dying soldier's hand.
"The compassion of the soldier giving CPR and the teamsmanship of those trying to save his life honors our military," said Rose Barnett, a reader from Jacksonville, Fla. "I see the fellow has a wedding band. I'm sure it was hard on his wife and family, but giving tribute I think gives honor. ... This doesn't tell me we shouldn't be there; this tells me that this was a brave and kind man to lay his life down for the freedom of others. God rest his soul."
Amid regular reports of death and destruction, the opportunity to show members of our military working to save a life became an important justification for using this image. Seventy-four percent of journalists and 59 percent of readers would have printed it. "The photo speaks not just about a dying soldier but also to the comrades in arms that are trying to save his life," Jim Slosiarek, a journalist in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. "I think not publishing this photo does a great disservice to their efforts."
But plenty of respondents said family needs overwhelm any good the photo might do. Thirty percent of readers and 21 percent of journalists would have avoided it altogether.
"I feel really strongly about this picture as I have a military son," said Kathryn Martin, a reader from North Chili, N.Y. "I DO NOT want to see his dead body in the newspaper and have it run for years and years to catch me unawares any time there is a 'retrospective' about the war."
Andrew Kuppers, a journalist in Lakeland, Fla., said his paper received plenty of complaints after running this image on the front page. "Our decision was based on the sheer power of the moment, an act of heroism on the part of the medic," he said. "Most of our own guidelines would point us away from such a photo, but we went with it anyway, probably because everyone involved in the decision agreed it was one of the most powerful photos of the year from Iraq. ... It's worth noting that the main thing everyone noticed -- whether they agreed or disagreed with running the photo -- was the soldier's wedding band."