And Now It Starts

Well, the NYT moved pretty fast today in walking back their first visual swipe at the Obama administration.

The top screen shot, which led the on-line edition in the early afternoon, framed Obama’s first political appointee, Rahm Emanuel (as well as Obama himself) as overly hard-baked, conniving and conspiratorial (even though their story yesterday emphasized how much Emanuel has smoothed out the rough edges over the years).

In the space of about an hour, however, swapping a Reuters shot for the AP selection on the home page and in the article, we saw a warmer, more collegial impression instead.

Sure, Emanuel isn’t exactly Bambi, but no presidential Chief of Staff ever is. The larger point, however — with all the crucial problems and promise in the air — is that we don’t need this kind of tone.

(images: Charles Rex Argobast/AP. John Gress/Reuters)