ARLINGTON, Va. — The Army plans to develop new ground rules for press coverage of military funerals at Arlington National Cemetery after reporters complained that they are stationed so far from the grave site that they can neither see nor hear the ceremony.
The Army met with Pentagon press corps members Wednesday to discuss the issue, which came to a head after an article by Dana Milbank appeared last week in The Washington Post.
Titled “What the family would let you see, the Pentagon obstructs,” Milbank’s piece criticized the way the military handled press coverage of the April 22 funeral of Lt. Col. Billy Hall.
Even though Hall’s family had given permission for the media to attend the funeral — the only way media is allowed to cover the otherwise private events — the reporters were cordoned off in a group too far to hear or see the service.
That is Arlington’s policy, Thurman Higginbotham, Arlington Cemetery’s deputy director, said during Wednesday’s meeting.
Apparently the rules will be changed slightly to make the funerals more accessible; you have to wonder, though, if the simmering hostility between the media and the military was at the root of this policy.
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