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Comment by foolinaround | Hacker News Reader

The loss of a photo journalist with integrity like Danish Siddiqui is an irreplaceable loss, merely because there really aren't (m)any left.

While this situation in Afghanistan was fraught with danger from the start, his reporting in the Delhi riots and UP (a state in India)'s handling of Covid really changed the dynamics of the public intercourse, and also the urgency of the government. He undertook it at personal cost as a muslim.

In this way, these photographs were as impactful as the napalm girl photo in My Lai, Vietnam.

We like to think of our country as having a free press, but we have one that is completely suborned to a political ideology, etc? Where are the similar photos of the body of the elderly stacked in NJ/NY? Is there a similar level of threat to lives of these reporters?

The lack of a properly functioning 4th estate does not bode well for our country.

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> Where are the similar photos of the body of the elderly stacked in NJ/NY?

There were plenty of photos and videos of people wheeling bodies into giant big rigs in NYC. Sometimes using a fork lift. CNN even has articles as recent as May 2021 talking about how those trucks are still full of dead bodies.

This is all just a search away. So I don't know where you got the idea that this stuff is being hidden due to political ideology.

Did you miss the point?

We are talking about 2 events during the pandemic.

bodies in big rigs in NYC -- they were shown to highlight the need for social distancing, masking, induce a sense of panic etc among the public - something that the media and party was game to.

the bodies in elderly homes - a political decision (there were alternatives to sending infected seniors back into these homes), and the media hid it, ostensibly to protect their masters.

That is what I was referring to?

I am wondering if you are even aware of these happening? I would say there was almost a blackout of these news during that time in the mainstream media.

Do you think they actually physically piled up corpses in nursing homes? Do you think a nursing home would allow a photographer inside to take pictures of random individual dead bodies?

Doesn't it seem likely that the piles of bodies outside in refrigerated trucks were way more photographable, and like the nursing home bodies were not all in one place, or were too identifiable as individuals?

I'm sure there are photos of unidentifiable bodies being wheeled out of nursing homes. Here's one: https://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-2020/...

> Do you think they actually physically piled up corpses in nursing homes?

It's not my opinion; in one case in Northern NJ, they actually piled them up in some storage room (unrefridgerated of course) till one of the workers revealed it. They tried to get away with it.

> Do you think a nursing home would allow a photographer inside to take pictures of random individual dead bodies?

Do you think in each of these situations we are talking, these photo journalists (or anyone else) are invited to do these investigations? What I started off is even after the news came out of these homes, the media chose to hide it.

You seem to give the media the benefit of doubt, I however accuse them of malice, only because of all the opportunities they had to cover this issue (for months on end). We can chose to disagree ( it boils down to our political biases actually ).

Even after this incident being exposed, the leaders in these states did not make changes to their policies for months on end. It is so surprising to me why there was no outcry about this.

Its interesting that you linked a aarp report about this, and not one from the media.

>You seem to give the media the benefit of doubt, I however accuse them of malice, only because of all the opportunities they had to cover this issue (for months on end).

To add to this, remember that Cuomo was given an award for his handling of the pandemic by the media. I know it has been taken away, but just last year, the media decided to look past his nursing home fiasco and give him an award.

> To add to this, remember that Cuomo was given an award for his handling of the pandemic by the media

The International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences is not the same thing as the media in general (of which TV is a subset), and especially not the news media particularly (of which TV is an overlapping set).

So this news about bodies in elderly homes was carried by the non-mainstream media?

of course, because they are against the status quo of the establishment.

Journalism is not much about reporting these days, even the AP has started editorializing these days.

> the bodies in elderly homes

There weren't literal piles of bodies there, only metaphorical ones, which are difficult to photograph even if you are able to gain access to the site.

“Elderly homes” were a source of bodies, not an accumulation point (the big rigs were an accumulation point of bodies, including the ones coming from elderly homes.)

in that particular case, it was shockingly an (illegal) accumulation point of bodies.

and regarding photos and ability to take them, are'nt you being pedantic? the overall story is journalism... the media chose to bury this incident, gave (and continues to give) a free pass to all who were involved.

And there is a bigger difference:

In both the case where this journalist was killed and in the elderly being killed, mistakes were made, but the intent is important.

One is because some protocols were not followed in the heat of action, the other is because of political considerations, for the state to not use the resources provided by the feds, and hiding this news till later.

Before the bunch of people respond, let us remember our political bias since we all have one, and despite that, try to do the best we can, giving the benefit of doubt.

Note that this policy of shifting elders back to homes was not stopped for months, though makeshift facilities were available, no data was made available, no questions asked.

the only issues that are raised are those the media takes an interest in. Hence my original post.

"bodies in big rigs in NYC -- they were shown to highlight the need for social distancing, masking, induce a sense of panic etc among the public - something that the media and party was game to."

So you recognize that this was intended to help save further lives but you're unhappy about it?

"the bodies in elderly homes - a political decision (there were alternatives to sending infected seniors back into these homes), and the media hid it, ostensibly to protect their masters."

Who are these masters of the media that were somehow protecting themselves by not covering bodies in elderly homes? Are they the owners of the elderly homes who don't want to get sued into oblivion?

> this was intended to help save further lives but you're unhappy about it?

this was never my point, i just said it is a different event from the one I described.

> Who are these masters of the media

Is'nt it obvious that the mainstream media shill for the Democratic party? They were protecting the leaders of NY, NJ, PA which implemented these policies, and continued these murders even after a large number of deaths were reported.

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