Robert Gates Calls AP Photo of Fatally Injured Soldier 'Appalling'

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has denounced "in the strongest possible terms" an Associated Press photograph of a 21-year-old soldier with a badly injured leg. In a four-paragraph letter to the AP, Gates delivered stinging criticism. "Why your organization would purposefully defy the family's wishes knowing full well that it will lead to yet more anguish is beyond me," he wrote. He further called the release of the photo "appalling" and a breach of "common decency." The pictured soldier, Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard, later died and his family requested several times that the photo not be released.

"We feel it is our journalistic duty to show the reality of the war there, however unpleasant and brutal that sometimes is," Santiago Lyon, the AP's director of photography, responded. The news agency's statement added that the image "conveys the grimness of war and the sacrifice of young men and women fighting it." The organization noted that it waited until after Bernard's burial to distribute the photo, and called the picture and its accompanying story "a respectful treatment and recognition of sacrifice."

For details: Robert Gates Protests AP Decision as 'Appalling' [Politico]