The Dover Test-Case

Ralph Begleiter, a former world affairs correspondent for CNN, is now teaching journalism students at the University of Delaware. Begleiter seems to believe that journalists must be willing to ask inconvenient questions — which means his students will be well-trained but likely unemployable.

Begleiter filed a lawsuit on Monday:

A University of Delaware journalism professor sued the U.S. Department of Defense and the Air Force on Monday to try to get the government to release images of flag-draped coffins arriving at Dover Air Force Base from overseas.

Ralph Begleiter, of Newark, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington. The lawsuit seeks the release of photographs and videotapes of arrival and memorial ceremonies for the dead soldiers and other military personnel. …

A Pentagon spokeswoman declined to comment on the lawsuit. …

Begleiter said in his lawsuit that the photos are important for the public to see, so people can form educated opinions on U.S. foreign policy. He also wants the photos for his research into public tolerance for war casualties.

"I think the American people have a right to assess the cost of war, and one of the ways of doing that is to see the casualties of war," Begleiter said Monday. "The only way for the nation to get the sense of the cost of war is for the federal government, which keeps the records of a very respectful and somber ceremony, is to release them and make them available for the public."

The lawsuit said the impact of war images can affect U.S. officials' decisions about going to war. Because of that, the public's reaction to photographs such as those taken at the Air Force mortuary has been called "The Dover Test." …

The lawsuit said Begleiter filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the federal government for images last year. [His attorney] said the lack of response from federal officials entitled his client to take the case to court.

I was pleased to see the paper I work for recognize that this lawsuit was newsworthy. I would have been more pleased if the paper had recognized its obligation, as a newspaper with a Dover Bureau, and joined Begleiter in the suit. The paper, after all, has too much at stake in the First Amendment to leave its defense to a quixotic university professor.

If I ran the zoo, I'd have a photographer with a telephoto lens stationed in an elevated deer hunting blind across the street from DAFB. But then again ours isn't the only paper that has neglected to do this.