Reaction to Photojournalists as PR Stooges
I like the comments to Thursday’s post on When Photojournalists Become PR Stooges. But where are the photographers? Here are the posts:
Posted by: Gary Goldhammer at August 31, 2006 12:52 PM:
Great observations and analysis, Leonard. As you know, however, the journalistic negligence goes deeper. Why didn’t the reporters work with the shooter to capture the right images to support the copy? What about the assignment editors on the photo and news desks? The bigger issue is the reporters were focused on their “piece” of the story — in this case the text — and not on the story as a whole, which includes images. Journalists need to be better storytellers and tell those stories across multiple mediums.
Posted by: Spacey at August 31, 2006 07:13 PM
The White House advance team no doubt picked their scenes with pin-point precision and the usual sense of absolute power. Anyone who’s worked in network news knows no one deviates from THAT script.
And the White House crews that travels with the Prez are all so well-trained by now, that yes, they are little more than Rove toadies and PR stooges. Utterly worthless really, but if they were to deviate from the memo and the talking points, they’d be out of a nice cushy union (NABET) job.
Funny how very little discussion, if any, about the role of the TV news networks’ unions in the shaping (or not) of new media. Now there’s a topic for you and Jeff Jarvis to take on!
Posted by: Anna September 1, 2006:
Did Byron Calame ever address this practice?
Leonard, any chance you could contact Calame – and the photojournalist – and ask them, and report their responses?
(it may also be that the photographer didn’t do the selecting, that it was an editor’s action or preference) I would like to hear how they go about making these choices, but if nobody asks directly, it’s not going to come out. and they’re more likely to answer you than me…
Answer to Anna: Good idea. I will email him. You should too. I will also try to contact some folks who run photojournalism organizations and see if anyone is willing to do an IM Interview with me. Recommendations welcomed.
