The image turning America against Bush: "The photographs that President George Bush does not want the American public to see show the flag-draped coffins containing the bodies of American servicemen and women - dying in Iraq at a rate of between four and six a day - being returned to the US and to their families.
Aware of the power of these pictures and their potential to inflict political damage on Mr Bush as he campaigns for re-election, his chief political adviser, Karl Rove, is desperate that they should not be published. Under a White House directive, the press has not been permitted to photograph the return of such coffins for more than a year. But last week 361 images of military coffins being returned to Dover air force base in Delaware were released to an internet news site under the Freedom of Information Act.
... Bush has not yet attended a single funeral service for any of those killed in Iraq ­ something that has outraged many of the families. Polls suggest that public approval of the President's handling of the war and the occupation is down from 51 per cent to 44 per cent.
Since their release, the photographs have been published prominently by newspapers and received widespread coverage by the television networks ­ triggering further debate about the war. Only Rupert Murdoch's Fox News has declined to show the pictures or report any discussion about the White House's decision to prevent their publication."
- posted by geoff @ #