From: Randall Parker 

The article also discusses pictures from other incidents such as the Rodney
King beating and the ways that people try, often quite successfully, to
redefine their meaning after the fact.

Its par for the course with the Clinton Administration that they are
telling blatant lies about their press policy in the Gonzalez raid. The
reason that only still pictures are available is that the still
photographer was already in the house before the raid. As you can see below
the NBC crew were rather forcefully blocked from getting video footage.

http://www.reason.com/0007/fe.cf.reading.html
   Excerpt:

"Reno Allowed Photos"

On April 25, The Washington Post carried a remarkable story headlined
"Reno Allowed Photos During Elian Siege." According to this
account, which was attributed only to "sources," Reno
"personally decided not to prevent photographers from taking
pictures" of the raid. Reno, said these

sources, was "seeking to avoid allegations of a government
coverup" of the kind that has haunted her since the Branch Davidian
siege ended in more than 80 deaths by burning seven years before. Indeed,
she foresaw that Alan Diaz himself would be present inside the house and
taking photographs, said the sources, but liberally decided not to have him
ejected. Her reported openness was also motivated by the fact that both her
parents were journalists, according to the account.

Thus, while the content of the Diaz photographs may be unattractive, the
very existence of the pictures is a supposed tribute to the government’s
policy of honesty, and to Reno’s commitment to democracy, the First
Amendment, and freedom of the press.

"It was a gutsy decision," Carl Stern told the Post. Stern is a
former reporter who was also a Reno spokesman early in the administration.
Roger

Pilon of the Cato Institute saw things differently. According to him,
removing the AP photographer when he was already in the house "would
have

been even greater police-state measures."

Attempting to limit the impact of damaging images by taking credit for
those images is unusual, and may in fact be unprecedented. If the military
had thought of this stratagem during the Vietnam War, for example, it could
have tried to mitigate the damage of all that embarrassing footage of
soldiers setting fire to villages by claiming that such images represented
the very freedom that the military was fighting for. Certainly the most
striking element of the story is its implication that Reno deserves extra
credit for "allowing" the news media

to do their job.

In fact, the Post account was one of several narratives that encouraged the
public to see the pictures from Reno’s pained and empathetic point of

view. In The Miami Herald, for instance, the attorney general is quoted as
asking herself, "How would [Elian] feel, suddenly being put in the
arms of a stranger? What would he think? How frightened would he be? And I
kept thinking, I wish I could see him when his daddy gets on the
plane." In an extraordinary bit of sharing, Deputy Attorney General
Eric Holder informed the press that after Reno had ordered the raid to
begin, "She put her head on my shoulder and wept."

The day after the Post printed the account of Reno’s liberal press
policies, Tony Zumbado was taken to the hospital. Who’s he? He was the NBC
cameraman on location the night of the raid, and the designated broadcast
and cable pool cameraman. He and his soundman were alerted to the approach
of the INS raiders moments before their arrival. Zumbado told The New York
Times what happened when he attempted to cover the raid

from inside the home. "We got Maced, we got kicked, we got roughed up."

NBC reporter Kerry Sanders, who was also outside the Gonzalez house on the
night of the raid, described what happened to the right-wing Web site

Newsmax.com, which has published the most detailed account.

According to Sanders, Zumbado encountered INS agents already in the house

when he entered. Zumbado’s soundman, still outside, was hit in the head
with a rifle butt and fell to the ground bleeding. Zumbado, the camera
perched on his shoulder, fell backward when someone yanked the heavy video
and audio cables that were attached to it.

"At that point," says Sanders, "somebody smacks him in the
stomach. Tony is hit in the stomach and goes down. And then the agent puts
his foot on Tony’s back and puts a gun to him and says, ‘Don’t move or I’ll
shoot.’

"Tony tells me that as he looks up around, he sees the family there
and he sees these little red dots on Lazaro’s [Elian’s great uncle’s]
forehead, on Marisleysis’ [Elian’s cousin’s] forehead. Which of course are
the laser sights from the machine guns. He sees them all trained there and
then he hears what’s going on in the back room. But he’s not in

that back bedroom because he’s now down on the floor with a foot in his
back and a gun to his head saying, ‘Don’t move.’"

Zumbado had a pre-existing back condition that was apparently exacerbated

when a federal commando planted a boot on his spine. The Wednesday after
the raid, Zumbado, unable to move without pain, was removed from his home

by stretcher and taken to a Miami hospital. While there, he would have been
able to read about Janet Reno’s liberal press-coverage policies at his
leisure.

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