Showing a bunch of dead people floating in a putrid pool of water *does* reduce these victims to nothing but a number. They become just one of the thousands dead.

I would say it's exactly the reverse. Without pictures they become nothing but statistics. It's one thing to say that 10,000 died, another to actually see pictures of even a small fraction of them.

If you want to bring the point home- show the families grieving over their loved ones. Show the kids who are left orphaned. That will demonstrate the degree of human pain and suffering this disaster has caused much more effectively than showing a bunch of floaters. Or at least it should.

My point of view is almost exactly opposite that. As I see it, the grieving families are the only ones with privacy to protect here, and if it where me, the last thing I would want is any of my grief becoming public.

I wonder if part of the difference is in your comment about showing pain and suffering. In truth, that is not my primary reason for wanting see what happened in New Orleans.

My desire is to know what happened as accuratly as possible. When, where and how did people die? What could have been done better? How do we prevent this from happening again? Those questions can not be answered if we don't have accurate information. And I don't trust the government to gather it or release it on their own.

Jay