Press Protests Obama's Longstanding "Tass-Like" Photo-Propaganda Regime

Obama largely denies access to media photographers, due to his typical Nixonian paranoid control-freak obsession with his image.

That might surprise you -- as it well may surprise the press -- given the fact that the press chooses to depict Obama, when left to its own devices, as an angel descended to earth or actual god among us.

Nevertheless, Obama was apparently concerned that the 75% of the press photographers attempting to deify him through carefully-angled Halo Photography might be somewhat undermined by the 25% who just took pictures of him, depicting him as a man, possibly in unflattering ways. And he couldn't abide that.

Ron Fournier commits some journalism and takes Obama to task for running a propaganda machine on the taxpayers' dime. And yes, he's that forward in his criticism.

New York Times photographer Doug Mills strode into Jay Carney's office Oct. 29 with a pile of pictures taken exclusively by President Obama's official photographer at events the White House press corps was forbidden to cover. "This one," Mills said, sliding one picture after another off his stack and onto the press secretary's desk. "This one, too – and this one and this one and … ."

The red-faced photographer, joined by colleagues on the White House Correspondents' Association board, finished his 10-minute presentation with a flourish that made Carney, a former Moscow correspondent for Time, wince.

"You guys," Mills said, "are just like Tass."

Comparing the White House to the Russian news agency is a hyperbole, of course, but less so with each new administration. Obama's image-makers are taking advantage of new technologies that democratized the media, subverting independent news organizations that hold the president accountable. A generation ago, a few mainstream media organizations held a monopoly on public information about the White House. Today, the White House itself is behaving monopolistic.

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Unlike media photographers, official White House photographers are paid by taxpayers and report to the president. Their job is to make Obama look good. They are propagandists – in the purest sense of the word.

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Journalists understand that the president's family and national security events must be off-limits at times. Journalists also don't object to the White House using social media; those are platforms as legitimate as televisions and print. The problem is that the Obama White House is simultaneously restricting access of independent media while flooding the public with state-run media.

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Here are just a few examples of how the White House uses your taxes to manipulate Obama's image.

Do read the whole thing. One of Obama's tricks is to exclude the press from a public gathering by claiming it's a "private" meeting. But his photo-propagandists are on hand, and they quickly push the pictures of the "private" meeting or rally out to the world.

In what sense is that "private"?

It's not. It is another case of Obama, get this, lying.

Fournier notes that a lot of these pictures are of Obama's rapturous supporters, not Obama himself. Does that make sense if the photographers are being paid by the taxpayer to document the president?

So why do they take and distribute so many photos like this – ones with no sign of the president? Hint: The crowds are always big, happy and adoring of Obama. All on your dime.

A letter has been sent to Jay Carney calling for an end to Obama's monopolistic exclusion of press photographers in favor of his own taxpayer-paid glamor propagandists. It's surprisingly tough as well.

For decades, American news photographers have captured iconic moments in and around the White House.... [Prior] presidents have recognized that photographic access by the public's press to their leader is essential to Americans' trust in the workings of government. But not this president. The administration of President Obama is routinely denying the right of independent journalists to photograph or videotape the president while he is performing official duties. Instead, the White House is issuing visual press releases - handout pictures taken by official government photographers - and expecting news outlets to publish those. These are not instances where national security is at stake, but rather, presidential activities of a fundamentally public nature.... In each case, the White House deemed the events "private," but then sent its own photographs to the press and directly to the public over social media. This is, we are sure you will agree, unacceptable practice, raising both constitutional and ethical concerns. These photographs are, in essence, government propaganda tailored to serve the president's interests and not the public's. ...

Pretty tough, huh?

Well... they're about to get tough on themselves. You may be a little surprised at that. I sure am.

In the meantime, we must accept that we, the press, have been enablers. We urge those of you in news organizations to immediately refrain from publishing any of the photographs or videos released by the White House, just as you would refuse to run verbatim a press release from them. We urge those of you in journalism education to highlight this issue in your classrooms. And we urge those with editorial pages to educate and activate the public on this important issue.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/pictures-video/obama-s-image-machine-monopolistic-propaganda-funded-by-you-20131121

posted by Ace at 07:33 PM

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