Politics As Usual
Shining a Light on Power and Policy
Tom Shine covers congressional politics for ABC News.
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She Was Terminated
July 10, 2008 9:29 AM
The Pentagon loves those pictures of cute Iraqi kids playing sports with American troops and those shots of well stocked, peaceful, Iraqi marketplaces which just a few months ago were far too dangerous to visit.
But they hate those pictures of the coffins arriving back in the states and the burials at Arlington National Cemetery that remind a nation just what it cost to get those happy, pleasant pictures in Iraq.
DANA MILBANK who writes for the WASHINGTON POST has a column this morning entitled "PUTTING HER FOOT DOWN AND GETTING THE BOOT." It is about Gina Gray who three months ago became the public affairs director at Arlington National Cemetery. Before that she had spent 8 years in the Army as a public affairs person in Germany, Italy and Iraq and later as an Army contractor in Iraq where she was with an American unit when it was ambushed. Milbank says Gray still has some hearing loss from that explosion.
Milbank says shortly after she was hired, Gina Gray noticed that Arlington National Cemetery officials were trying to make it very difficult for the press to cover the often very moving ceremonies that take place as the fallen heroes are buried. She complained that the restrictions were wrong and that they were being imposed even though families had granted the media permission to cover.
It wasn't long before she was demoted and 12 days ago SHE WAS FIRED.
Her supervisor, in her termination memo, said she was disrespectful.
Army Secretary Pete Geren told Dana Milbank last night that he couldn't comment on Gray's firing.
Gray told Milbank "Had I not put my foot down, had I just gone along with it and not said regulations were being violated, I'm sure I'd still be there."
July 10, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (9)
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Crusaders don't like heretics and she was bucking the faithful.
Posted by: JR | Jul 10, 2008 9:49:29 AM
Press coverage of funerals should be at the discretion of the family of the deceased. Funerals are incredibly private affairs. I wouldn't want the press or those with an anti-war agenda barging in and disrupting and disrespecting the funeral of a loved one. The family should ultimately decide who attends and photographs a funeral and the press and others need to respect that privacy.
Posted by: ECT | Jul 10, 2008 9:50:24 AM
ETC
"She complained that the restrictions were wrong and that they were being imposed even though families had granted the media permission to cover."
as was stated in the article,
if respected we should see all sides, not just Bush Cheney censored news.
Posted by: read | Jul 10, 2008 10:03:42 AM
How do we know her interpretation of the regulations was correct? The article doesn't say other military cemeteries were following different procedures or that Arlington National Cemetery has changed its procedures since the War on Terror began. Perhaps, the government is trying to protect the privacy of other grieving families at the cemetery that would be unnecessarily upset by the cameras and do not wish to engage in a political discussion about their loved ones. That seems like a legitimate reason to restrict access to a burial ground--especially one as sacred as Arlington. Is there a provision in the regulations that allow families to waive portions of the regulations or do they consent to all the regulations when they choose to bury their loved one in a military cemetery? I know when my Uncle was buried at Arlington several years ago there were no video cameras allowed but I wasn't involved in the funeral planning so I don't know why. She may be right but there are a lot more questions I would want answered before I came to the conclusion that firing her was wrong.
Posted by: Your in the Army Now | Jul 10, 2008 10:30:50 AM
Silly me. I just assumed that no one would shill their dead kids for media exposure and political gain. I forgot about Cindy Sheehan for a minute there.
Posted by: ECT | Jul 10, 2008 10:32:06 AM
Those in power right now a sick.
Posted by: James | Jul 10, 2008 10:56:24 AM
Oops, I meant to say ... are sick.
Posted by: James | Jul 10, 2008 10:56:48 AM
The article leaves a lot of questions unanswered. But I do remember that, from the start of the war, the administration and conservative arm of the press worked hard to keep the the reality of death from the public's eye. Remember when the display of a pair of boots for every serviceman who died was labeled anti-war and "sending our soldiers the wrong message?" Remember when Doonesbury was blasted for listing the names of every serviceman who died from one Memorial Day to the next in their Memorial Day tribute? This seems like just another branch of the same policy.
Posted by: LowB44 | Jul 10, 2008 11:44:43 AM
We all know the Bush Administration is CENSORING THE NEWS!
Posted by: irma | Jul 23, 2008 6:17:33 PM
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