LA Times “explains” reason for releasing the latest “scandal”
Claymore sends us a link to the LA Times which recounts the editor’s explanation on a live chat for their decision to release the photos that the military has slavishly denounced as “inappropriate;
In a live chat on latimes.com, Editor Davan Maharaj explained the decision to publish the material, especially the pictures, even though the events occurred two years ago. The publication comes at an especially sensitive time, with the U.S. and its NATO allies seeking to disengage from the Afghanistan war that began in October 2001.
“We considered this very carefully,” Maharaj said. “At the end of the day, our job is to publish information that our readers need to make informed decisions. We have a particular duty to report vigorously and impartially on all aspects of the American mission in Afghanistan. On balance, in this case, we felt that the public interest here was served by publishing a limited, but representative sample of these photos, along with a story explaining the circumstances under which they were taken.”
In response to a reader’s question about how the photographs were selected, Maharaj said taste and relevance were the guiding principles.
OK, Maharaj, tell us what decisions that the public can now make about our involvement in the war that they couldn’t have made on Friday before you published those photos. That war is terrible? They should be making the decision to stop their subscription to the LA Times – well, those two subscribers you still have.
No amount of high-minded rhetoric can convince me that the decision was “considered…carefully”. The decision was purely a business decision intended to have the blood lead their news that day. It was meant to shock and disgust readers and to portray US soldiers in a bad light, to paint with a broad brush all members of the services and hand more ammunition to the anti-war element on the West Coast. The decision was a juvenile and ill-considered decision based only on newspaper and advertising sales.
That Maharaj had to explain to his readers why they did what the LA Times did should tell him something about his readership in regards to the decision.
But Maharaj said that the safety of troops was among The Times’ concerns.
“The photographs were provided by a soldier in the unit “who was himself concerned that the photos reflected dysfunction in discipline and a breakdown in leadership that compromised the safety of the troops,” Maharaj said.
He went on to say that the newspaper weighed the impact of publication on troop safety and that reporter David Zucchino had numerous conversations with the appropriate military officials.
“When we made the decision to publish, the Pentagon asked us to wait 24 additional hours to protect troops depicted in the photographs,” Maharaj said. “We agreed to push back our publication date until the Pentagon told us they had taken the necessary precautions.
While I commend them for waiting on the military to protect the people in the pictures, what about the troops who aren’t in the photos who have to deal with the backlash in the war theater? By the way, Davan, people don’t turn over photos to the media because of their concern for the troops. If he really wanted to make a difference, the guy who gave you the photos would have given them to the military, either his unit or law enforcement, not the fricken LA Times as the first place to drop them off.
ADDED: My editor at Business Insider has many of the same thoughts I had. I guess that’s why I get business over there now.
Category: Media, Military issues
As troops of the Foreign Legion might say: “Cette explication, c’est merde.”
Holy shit it’s a fucking war, it’s not about rainbows and hugs.. it’s hell. What about the bodies the enemy has beheaded, drug through streets, or burned and hung from bridges?
This is more of the same BS from the same crowd that thinks we should all but fellate the enemy in combat. I seriously think we should take up donations to send some of these fucktards in theater.
Well, at least the L.A. Fishwrap is consistent. We all remember when they posted the video of Obama toasting Rashid Khalidi, right? Oops, my bad, they didn’t?
Guess their readers didn’t need that information to make an informed decision about who to vote for?
Must be there is no mission to report “vigorously and impartially on all aspects of the” associations and friendships of a candidate for President?
What I want to see are the links to their articles and pictures of our soldiers providing medical care for their sick and wounded, providing food and water and relief, risking and sometimes giving their lives to protect the innocents.
Oh, wait…
LA Times tTranslation: We wanted to release this outdated crap as explosively as possible to sell the most papers. We don’t give a damn about wther some unwashed illiterate raghead will use this as sn excuse to kill women and children or our troops, because frankly if you are not on our politically approved list you must be subhuman scum.
And they question OUR morality.
No, Dave, the decision to publish was made after consulting the Obama Campaign who needed a distraction. Selling papers was just a bonus.
I just pisses me off that these asshole won’t print a goddamn story about the atrocities the talibs do to their own school girls, but we are monsters for posing in pictures.
Here is the article naming Devan Maharam as Editor of the LA times — please read and especially read the very last sentence and then remember — he’s the one that decided to post the pictures. I believe he’s also posted Michael Yon articles before.
Los Angeles: Trinidad born Davan Maharaj has been named as the new editor and executive vice president of the Los Angeles Times. He will take the place of Russ Stanton, 52, under whose leadership the paper expanded its digital reach to more than 17 million readers each month and won three Pulitzer Prizes, including this year’s Public Service award for exposing corruption in the city of Bell.
Maharaj is going to be the 15th editor of LA Times. Currently the managing editor of the newspaper, 49-year-old Maharaj has worked at the paper for 22 years, including as a correspondent in Africa.
His six-part series “Living on Pennies,” which explored extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, won the 2004 Ernie Pyle Award for Human Interest Writing, and his investigation into the dubious practices of a Leisure World probate attorney prompted changes in California law.
He holds a political science degree from Tennessee and a Masters degree in law from Yale and has worked at the paper for 22 years with a short stint in Africa.He has also been an assistant foreign editor and then business editor before becoming the paper’s managing editor in 2008. Maharaj’s series on poverty in sub-Sahara won him the 2005 Ernie Pyle award.
He holds a political science degree from the University of Tennessee and a master’s degree in law from Yale, Maharaj became Business editor in 2007, emphasizing greater coverage of consumer issues and personal finance. He has been managing editor for news since 2008, with responsibility for the foreign, national, metro, sports and business staffs.
“I am humbled and honored to lead one of the most talented and resilient newsrooms in the nation,” Maharaj said. “Our commitment to delivering high-quality journalism remains unwavering.”
Something in the milk ain’t clean.
o Interesting that when looks at the existing paintings and carvings of the Pharoahs, there is always a scene of the Pharoah disrespecting the corpses of his enemies.
o Throughout there world, wherever man used stone, wood, paint, or fabric (Bayeaux Tapestry), the bodies of the conquered are shown as trophies, disrespected, and put out there for the edification of the people.
o Looking at the paleolithic cave paintings, killers of humans were killed, and their deaths immortalized.
o So for over 10,000 years, mankind has made trophies of his dead enemies.
Then there’s the Afghans and the Taliban. During the Soviet invasion, the Afghans would play buzkashi with the corpses of Soviet soldiers; and soccer and polo with the skulls of Soviets.
And now we and they are all squeamish over something we and they have done for centuries?
This is preplanned misdirection. For decades the Liberals had to suck up the blame for losing Vietnam. Now Obama can abandon the troops and he and his fellow communists can say ‘look how barbaric our fellow citizens are!’ and have instant cred.
I saw a picture of an 8 year old boy who had his eyes put out and was hung by the Taliban, funny how their interest for those pictures dwindle but rather some of them get a thrill up their legs to post those pictures. Then of course the audacity they have to actually pretend like they care of the consequences.
[…] Angeles Times editor, Davan Mahara, who famously released the “atrocity pictures” of US soldiers posing with dead bodies of […]
[…] He was easy to capture since he immediately began urinating on his victims and taking pictures of Davan Mahara, who was posing with the Afghans, which is all part of our unit SOP, just like the real military. […]