From the Archive: Not New, Never Easy

[johnastovall]

"In two years of global warfare, America had yet to see almost any pictures of dead Americans. Then, in September 1943, an issue of Life magazine arrived in people’s homes and at their corner newsstands. It forced them to confront a stark, full-page picture by George Strock that showed three American servicemen sprawled on Buna Beach in New Guinea; two face down, one supine; their lifelessness unmistakable even in a still photograph.
On the facing page, Life’s editors said they had been fighting since February to get a picture past government censors at the Office of War Information, headed by Elmer Davis.
“Well, this is the picture,” they declared. “And the reason we print it now is that, last week, President Roosevelt and Elmer Davis and the War Department decided that the American people ought to be able to see their own boys as they fall in battle; to come directly and without words into the presence of their own dead...”


Full story and images from WWII to Iraqi.

[Jaycee]

An extremely though-provoking article. Another quote:
Mr. Kamber added: “People have attacked me for being unpatriotic for publishing pictures of wounded and dead Americans. I find this strange. Press control — censorship — is something that happens in Communist China, in Russia. One of the cornerstones of our democracy is freedom of the press. As journalists, we need to be able to work openly and publish photos that reflect reality so that the public and government officials have an accurate idea of what is going on. They can make decisions accordingly.”