If Hondros had a way of relating to people that was rare for a photojournalist, perhaps it was rare for Kerry, too.
Continue ReadingThe French law states that women who cover in public are subject to a fine and also must enroll in a “citizenship course,” however, the young woman in this picture seems to understand citizenship better than the Sarkozy administration.
Continue ReadingT his election edition of the BAGnewsSALON, an on-line discussion series, included moderator C ara Finnegan; producer Ida Benedetto; host Michael Shaw; professors Paul Lester; Nathan Stormer and John Lucaites; photographers Alan Chin, Nina Berman and Aric Mayer, as well as members of the BAGnewsNotes readership. ...Considering the images...
Continue ReadingI thought I would enter into evidence one last example of the media’s distortion of John Kerry. This shot is from Time Magazine’s end-of-the-year issue. To summarize my own thoughts, I can’t deny that Kerry, at times, is a man of two minds. For much of the media to...
Continue ReadingGiven my weeks of hammering about the New York Times political photo coverage, my occasional guest blogger, Karen, alerted me to this shot from today’s NYTimes on-line. It’s the first shot I’ve seen in the Times (at least since the debates) that captures the thin-skinned Bush we saw on...
Continue ReadingHere’s my latest example of photojournalistic character assassination. This composition was the lead feature in Time Magazine’s Wednesday on-line campaign photo gallery. Notice how Bush is always on top in these juxtapositions? (If you’re familiar with my system, I score it: Bush 5, Kerry -7.)
Continue ReadingThe main question underlying my ongoing critique of the NYTimes’ political photo coverage is, Why does Kerry keep coming off worse than Bush? One angle to consider (pardon the pun) is that practical factors play a significant part. For example, one of my visitors last week suggested that the...
Continue ReadingOn Monday, the NYTimes offered respectful photo coverage of John Kerry. (They actually ran a JFK version of the “candidate in the adulating crowd” shot –which is almost a daily staple for Bush.) The improvement, however, only lasted a day. This (Tuesday) morning, the two candidates appeared on page...
Continue ReadingThis lead for Newsweek’s on-line campaign coverage is a good example of how the media gives Bush a free pass. In presenting two articles comparing the candidates qualifications, it contrasts Bush the CEO with Kerry the Senator. Whether or not anyone has thought it through, juxtaposing Kerry’s twenty year...
Continue ReadingO.K., let’s give credit where credit is due. The NYTimes (finally) did better, photo-wise, by Kerry on Sunday. They not only had this shot on the website… (Kerry and crowd in the same picture) …they also had a more unbiased shot of him in the dead trees edition. Before...
Continue ReadingHere’s my mark-up of the latest NYTimes Kerry shot (Saturday’s paper –page A11). I give them credit for finally including a group of people in a photo of Kerry. However, the fact these people are isolated in the background; the secret service guys bear no personal connection to the...
Continue ReadingBecause I’ve been on something of my own campaign regarding (what I see as) bias in the NYTimes campaign photo coverage, I thought it might help to be more specific about it. I was thinking, for example, how I would lay it out to the Times editors. So here’s...
Continue ReadingSometime in the summer, I started a blog category called “Leading Photos.” Inspired by the unconventional cover photos in the NYTimes, I would occasionally post the most interesting shots while offering various wry suggestions as to their subtext. (Example 1, Example 2) If you’ve been following the BAG, you...
Continue ReadingReally, I’m just stupified at this point by the Times’ photo coverage of John Kerry. After all the business with Daniel Okrent and Jackson Pollock, here’s the latest set of images of the two candidates. This time, we have George Bush hand in hand with his idolizing wife, Laura...
Continue ReadingIf you’ve been following this blog, you know that I’ve been keeping an eye on the photo coverage of Bush and Kerry for the past couple of months. In that time, it’s been my sense that the coverage has been biased against Kerry. Primarily, what I have observed is...
Continue ReadingWhen I laid out the NYTimes this morning, I was disappointed to find still another lead image (the second this week) clearly denigrating John Kerry. Frustrated, I started hunting around for stories that might reveal some new (conservative) editorial slant to the Times photo coverage. I can’t say my...
Continue ReadingIn keeping up my “highly graphic” standard, I like to keep an eye on editorial trends at the visual level. Over the past few days, John Kerry has been hammering Bush on Iraq. Yesterday, the attacks assumed a new degree of ferocity. The impact was heightened because Kerry took...
Continue ReadingIt seems the NYTimes is on a roll with it’s front page photos of the Iraqi transition. In this shot, new American Ambassador John Negroponte presents himself to the new Iraqi President and Foreign Minister. As the saying goes, there’s enough distance between the parties to drive a truck...
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