UnFreakingBelievable. The woman who should get the Pulitzer prize for her photograph of flag draped US coffins coming home from Iraq aboard a US military cargo plane that ran this past weekend has been fired. This from Romenesko.

Woman loses job over coffins photo that appeared in paper Seattle Times Tami Silicio, a Kuwait-based cargo worker whose photograph of flag-draped coffins of fallen U.S. soldiers ran last Sunday in the Seattle Times, has been fired for violating U.S. government and Maytag Aircraft regulations. Silicio says she hoped publication of the photo would help soldiers' families understand the care and devotion that civilians and military crews dedicate to the task of returning the soldiers home, reports Hal Bernton. > Earlier: Powerful photo offers chance to tell an important story

If the Washington Post or New York Times are smart, they would snap up this photographer in a second.

Post Script: Well, apparently, Silico isn't a professional photographer, but a recently fired defense contractor in Kuwait. But still it is appalling that she and her husband lost their jobs because she was showing Americans very respectful photographs of soldiers who died fighting for our war. These images shouldn't be forbidden. What does it mean that our government is so intent on preventing people from seeing images of the human cost of the war? There is no way the Pentagon can use the privacy argument because you can't tell who is who inside of flag draped coffins. The families cannot tell either. So what is the rationale for suppressing these images except a type of political calculation?

Posted by Laura at April 22, 2004 10:08 AM