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SMEDLEY D. BUTLER BRIGADE NEWS

E X T R A !

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Boston Globe Rejects Veterans’ Plea

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Refuses to Publish Iraq War Casualty Figures

on Front Page on a Weekly Basis

In a meeting with Foreign Editor James Smith on January 18, 2005, members of the Smedley D. Butler Brigade of Veterans For Peace, Inc. (VFP) again requested that the Boston Globe publish Iraq War U.S. casualty figures on the front page on a weekly basis. The Globe had refused a similar request a year and a half earlier. See Globe Letters.

During the Vietnam War the Globe published numbers of U.S. killed and wounded for the prior week prominently on the front page every Friday, and often included total casualty figures from the beginning of the war to date. See Globe Front Pages.

The Globe says that they want:

"to avoid creating regular features in the news pages that lock us into a format or commit us to use scarce space in predetermined ways."

The Globe says that by not putting casualty figures on the front page it:

"avoids the perception that we are reducing the discourse around the war simply to the importance of American lives."

The Globe is concerned that placing casualty figures on the front page on a regular basis will make it appear that the Globe has an "agenda."

The Globe says that they:

"do not believe it is appropriate to carry a tally on page one..."

On August 29, 2005, Smedley D. Butler Brigade informed the Globe that their members, "many of whom are combat veterans, are offended by the Globe's treatment of the rising casualty figures as something non-worthy of weekly front page coverage." The Globe persists in its refusal.

GLOBE TELLS VETERANS TO CEASE AND DESIST

On September 20, 2005, the Globe advised CancelMyGlobe.com that we were infringing on the newspaper's copyright by reproducing images of ten front pages from the 1968-1970 era on this website, and the Globe required that we "immediately cease and desist ...unauthorized use of Boston Globe owned content..." CancelMyGlobe.com has responded to the Globe that the limited use of these images to illustrate the Globe's inconsistent policies in reporting U.S. war casualties is protected by the "fair use" doctrine of the U.S. Copyright Laws. See Globe letter and response. Read about the "fair use" doctrine.

OMBUDSMAN CRITICIZES GLOBE'S IRAQ WAR COVERAGE

In the October 2, 2005 Boston Sunday Globe, their ombudsman Richard Chacón criticizes the Globe's Iraq War coverage. He writes: "...from the dozens of readers who contacted the ombudsman, I detected another message for Globe editors: Put the Iraq war back on the front page."

YOU CAN FIND THE CASUALTY COUNT EVERY FRIDAY ON AN

OVERPASS IN GREATER BOSTON. . . BECAUSE YOU WON'T FIND

IT ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE BOSTON GLOBE