Do you think anyone in the White House will be watching?

[geekchick]

Via atrios:

From Nightline’s 4-27 daily email (tonight’s show is on the Cheney Supreme Court case):

Now I want to tell you about this Friday’s broadcast. We’re going to do something different, something that we think is important. Friday night, we will show you the pictures, and Ted will read the names, of the men and women from the armed forces who have been killed in combat in Iraq. That’s it. That will be the whole broadcast. Nightline has been reporting on the casualties under the heading of “Line of Duty.”

But we realized that we seemed to just be giving numbers. So many killed in this incident, so many more in that attack. Whether you agree with the war or not, these men and women are serving, are putting their lives on the line, in our names. We think it is important to remember that those who have paid the ultimate price all have faces, and names, and loved ones. We thought about doing this on Memorial Day, but that’s a time when most media outlets do stories about the military, and they are generally lost in the holiday crush of picnics and all. We didn’t want this broadcast to get lost. Honestly, I don’t know if people will watch this for thirty seconds, or ten minutes, or at all. That’s not the point. We think this is important. These men and women have earned nothing less.

One point, we are not going to include those killed in non-hostile incidents. There’s no disrespect meant here, we just don’t have enough time in this one broadcast. But they are no less deserving of our thoughts. I hope that you will join us for at least part of “The Fallen” on Friday.

Leroy Sievers and the Nightline Staff Nightline Offices ABCNEWS Washington D.C.

Comments

Re: How it's done matters a lot

[winterbadger]

These are good points, but I think the debate about what is being done and whther it's a good thing or not is going on already. I see this as another piece of information for those involved in that debate, and one that doesn't get presented enough.

It will be interesting to see whether they provide any backstory to the casualties (location, action, events) or just read a list of names and show photos. Another factor is what sort of photos are used. I assume official headshots or perhaps casual photos. Presumably not photos of their caskets or of the soldiers after death. THAT would be an incendiary political statement.