Media access to dead service members questioned

It is a gut wrenching picture.  Rows of flag draped coffins coming home from war.

It was a daily occurrence during Vietnam, but not in the war in Iraq.

That’s because the military forbids it.

But are pictures like that a First Amendment right or just media exploitation?

Donald Wallace’s grandson’s story became front page news.

So when Wallace hears Congressman Walter B. Jones proposal to give the media more access to the caskets of troops returning home he isn’t thrilled.

“The national media they don’t present it in the correct way,” Wallace said.  “They don’t bring up what’s been done over there good. All they do is bring up what’s bad.“
He says his grandson Army SPC Joel Taylor spoke of helping children in Iraq, and rebuilding schools before he died—he says that was lost on the news media.
Wallace says, “As far as I’m concerned they look at it as bodies, or casualties instead of heroes.“
Congressman Jones is proposing the Fallen Hero Commemoration Act. 

He says its to show how much freedom costs.

“Even though people won’t know the name of the individual in the flag draped coffin, if the photograph is taken and it shows the American people we have an obligation and responsibility to remember that American citizen that gave his or her life for this country,” Rep Jones said.

Since 2003 the military has not allowed the media to photograph groups of coffins when they arrive back in the US.  The bill would change that.

Rep Jones adds, “This is a first amendment issue quite frankly.“

An issue that transcends the grave.
   
Congressman Jones tells Nine On Your Side he’s signed more than 7,543 condolence letters to the relatives of troops from all over the country who died in the war.
 
He says that number is what motivated him to look into this bill.
   
Rep Jones is requesting a congressional hearing.

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In 2003, the Department of Defense expanded it’s no media policy which cut down on coverage of the flag draped caskets of U.S. troops arriving back in the U.S.
   
Some have said we are losing a part of our history.
   
One lawmaker from the east says he wants to change that.
   
Congressman Walter B. Jones says he wants to show people just how much freedom costs.
   
And pictures of the caskets of our war dead are part of that.
   
Congressman Jones believes his solution is the Fallen Hero Commemoration Act.

It will require the Department of Defense to give the media access during military commemoration ceremonies, memorial services and when fallen troops arrive at military installations in the U.S.

Congressman Jones tells Nine On Your Side he’s just requesting a hearing at this stage.
   
Tonight at eleven hear what family’s who have lost loved ones have to say.

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It’s an issue that’s caused some conflict through the years.
   
How much access should the media have on dead service members returning home from overseas?

The National Press Photographers Association has endorsed a bill called “The Fallen Hero Commemoration Act”.

The bill was introduced by Representative Walter B. Jones.

It would reverse a Defense Department ban on photographing the flag-draped coffins of the country’s military dead returning home.
   
The Defense Department banned the practice in 1991 during the Persian Gulf conflict.