Taranto: Coffins Yes, Funeral No?

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Blogger James Lileks has a powerful riff on media coverage of Iraq war casualties:

Last week a letter in the paper ran off the usual list of oppressions and deletions of basic liberties, including "the coffins we are not allowed to see." It reminded me of a conversation I had in Arizona with a Marine, whose family was also staying at my in-laws' house. . . . He had just returned from accompanying the body of a Marine back to his home town for a memorial. Lance Cpl. Nick Palmer, 19, was killed by a sniper in Fallujah. . . .

The networks may not have shown footage of the coffin as it arrived, but it certainly had the opportunity to show the funeral and the ceremony that preceded it. The Marine, who was Lance Cpl. Palmer's commanding officer, described the event: they arrived at night. Both sides of the street were filled with townspeople, gathered to greet the soldier. Every light in every window was on; every pole had a flag.

The church pews had no empty seats. "Amazing Grace" was played and the Purple Heart presented.

Everyone was allowed to see the coffin, and reflect on what it stood for.

The local TV station's website has a video interview with the parents, which manages to work in Vietnam in the first six seconds. If the TV station filmed the homecoming, it doesn't appear to be on the site. I can't think of any reason why they wouldn't have shown the homecoming, unless they regarded the interview with the grieving parents as the full measure they were required to give.

A common complaint from those hostile to President Bush is that the president does not attend funerals for fallen servicemen. This, the critics contend, shows that he doesn't care about their sacrifice--notwithstanding the many private meetings he holds at the White House with surviving family members.

We are persuaded by the counterargument that the president's presence would overshadow the funeral itself and the attendant security would pose logistical burdens on the mourners. Also, as a practical matter, the president could not attend more than a handful of funerals.

But as Lileks makes clear, the local media have no such excuse. It seems, however, that most news organizations are more interested in morbid symbols and statistics--the anonymous coffins being flown home, the latest "grim milestone" of the number killed in Iraq--than in what they died for. The assumption is that war is senseless, and only those facts that reinforce this assumption receive emphasis.