Defense secretary criticizes Associated Press over photo of dead Marine

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The New York Times’ Media Decoder blog discusses recent criticism of the Associated Press’s release of photos of a Marine moments after he was killed in Afghanistan.

A furious Defense Secretary Robert Gates has upbraided The Associated Press for its decision to go against the wishes of a young Marine’s family and publish a photograph of him after he was killed…

The NY Times piece details the AP’s decision-making process and how they came to the decision to release the package, which included several other photos, stories and a diary of events written by the photographer.

The Akron Beacon Journal ran the story on the front page on Friday, Sept. 4, but with a less controversial photo. They ran the contested photo on page A4, smaller but in color. The following day, Saturday, Sept. 5, the ABJ ran the AP story about the photo and the debate on page A6. They also included information about how they made the decision to use the story and photo.

Filed under: Blog, Ethics