Top AP Photographer Slams White House for ‘Propaganda’ Photography Practices

Top AP Photographer Slams White House for ‘Propaganda’ Photography Practices

• David Becker
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  Top editors at the Associated Press slammed the White House — or, more specifically, the Obama Administration — last week for restricting photographers’ access to the president in favor of staged “propaganda.”
  
  
  Speaking at the AP Media Editors conference in Indianapolis, director of photography Santiago Lyon said AP photographers have only been allowed to photograph President Obama twice in the Oval Office, and never with staff present.
  
  
  Instead, the administration expects news outlets to rely on “handout” photos taken by official White House photographers — photos they claim are carefully cast to project a certain image of the president and his staff.
  
  
  “This works because newspapers use these handout photos,” said executive editor Kathleen Carroll, according to The Daily Caller. Carroll called on news outlets to stop publishing the staged photos and join the AP in insisting on real access to the president.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The AP stepped up its criticism of the White House in April, distributing an editorial entitled “controlling the narrative while limiting media access.”
  
  
  Former President Clinton press secretary Mike McCurry joined the news agency in criticizing the Obama administration’s tactics, saying, “what gets lost are those revealing moments when the president is held accountable by the representatives of the public, who are there in the form of the media.”
  
  
  In the meantime, Obama lensman Pete Souza has been one of most active and visible official White House photographers ever, distributing everything from official portraits to backstage       Instagram moments.
  
  
  (via The Daily Caller via Natural News)

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  Image credits: Photographs by Pete Souza/White House
  
  
  
  

  “What gets lost are those revealing moments when the president’s held accountable by the representatives of the public who are there in the form of the media,” said McCurry.

  The history of White House photography suggests barring photographers in this way may even limit Obama’s propaganda power. Photojournalists snapped many of the best-remembered Oval Office photos, including the picture of a backlit President John F. Kennedy with his head bowed, which was shot by New York Times photographer George Tames. That photo, dubbed “The Loneliest Job In the World,” went on to become an icon of the Cuban Missile Crisis, although it was snapped several months before the crisis and simply showed the president reading a newspaper while standing, to relieve his back pain. During the actual missile crisis, JFK reportedly left the Oval Office to join fabled stripper Blaze Starr in the Lincoln Bedroom for what Starr called a “very short” encounter.

  
  
  Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/01/ap-editors-obama-relies-on-staged-propaganda-photos/#ixzz2kVVoZik2
  http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/01/ap-editors-obama-relies-on-staged-propaganda-photos/