talbotlucas.org: a word to the wise is sufficient

Ted Koppel was on Al Franken's Air America program this morning to discuss this evening's Nightline broadcast, during which he will read the names and show the photographs of the more than 500* U.S. servicemen and women who have been killed in Iraq. I think this is an important step--akin to the one Jim Lehrer's NewsHour took at the start of the conflict and about which I wrote recently.

Some ABC affiliates have declared that they will boycott the program, and that's unfortunate. During this morning's radio interview, Koppel read a statement Senator McCain had issued, lauding the decision to name the fallen servicemen, and suggesting that Americans should understand the real burden of going to war--including the cost in human lives. Senator McCain said:

U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) issued the following letter today to Mr. David Smith, President and CEO of Sinclair Broadcast Group, in response to the preemption of this evening’s Nightline program:

I write to strongly protest your decision to instruct Sinclair’s ABC affiliates to preempt this evening’s Nightline program. I find deeply offensive Sinclair’s objection to Nightline’s intention to broadcast the names and photographs of Americans who gave their lives in service to our country in Iraq.

I supported the President’s decision to go to war in Iraq, and remain a strong supporter of that decision. But every American has a responsibility to understand fully the terrible costs of war and the extraordinary sacrifices it requires of those brave men and women who volunteer to defend the rest of us; lest we ever forget or grow insensitive to how grave a decision it is for our government to order Americans into combat. It is a solemn responsibility of elected officials to accept responsibility for our decision and its consequences, and, with those who disseminate the news, to ensure that Americans are fully informed of those consequences.

There is no valid reason for Sinclair to shirk its responsibility in what I assume is a very misguided attempt to prevent your viewers from completely appreciating the extraordinary sacrifices made on their behalf by Americans serving in Iraq. War is an awful, but sometimes necessary business. Your decision to deny your viewers an opportunity to be reminded of war’s terrible costs, in all their heartbreaking detail, is a gross disservice to the public, and to the men and women of the United States Armed Forces. It is, in short, sir, unpatriotic. I hope it meets with the public opprobrium it most certainly deserves.

* Note that today's Times notes that the Department of Defense has identified 718 American servicemen and women who have died. Other news outlets have put the number at 736.