Obama White House to Quit Faking Pictures

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110512/ap_on_re_us/us_obama_photographers

Really- I don't see the problem with this. It's kind of like those "spontaneous" pictures from the wedding reception people pose for...but alas, we're gonna stop it:

NEW YORK – The White House said it is ending its long-running practice of having presidents re-enact televised speeches for news photographers following major addresses to the country, a little-known arrangement that fed suggestions of fakery when Barack Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden.

After Obama's live, late-evening address from the East Room of the White House on May 1, five photographers were ushered in to shoot pictures as the president stood at the podium and re-read a few lines of his speech — a practice that news organizations have protested for years.

Even though The Associated Press and other news outlets said in captions to the photos that they were taken after the president delivered his address, many people who saw them may have assumed they depicted the speech itself. That raised questions of whether news organizations were staging an event.

The issue also drew attention when Jason Reed of Reuters, one of the photographers who took part, blogged about the assignment, saying the president "re-enacted the walkout and first 30 seconds of the statement for us."

This week, the White House stepped in.

"We have concluded that this arrangement is a bad idea," Obama spokesman Josh Earnest said late Wednesday. He said the administration is open to working out some new arrangement with photographers.

The practice of re-enactments has a long history. Washington veterans say President Harry Truman would deliver speeches over radio and then repeat them for newsreel cameras. Doug Mills, a photographer for The New York Times who was on duty May 1, said he has seen every president from Ronald Reagan to Obama take time after a speech so still photographers could get their shots.

[billisonboard]

The practice of re-enactments has a long history. Washington veterans say President Harry Truman would deliver speeches over radio and then repeat them for newsreel cameras. Doug Mills, a photographer for The New York Times who was on duty May 1, said he has seen every president from Ronald Reagan to Obama take time after a speech so still photographers could get their shots. (from the OP)

[glow=blue,1,500]Change is Good. [/glow]

Glad that President Obama is ending this long running practice.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Why are you "glad"? I'm really curious because I'm an agnostic on the issue. I'm not going to "oppose" it just because it's Obama, I'm just miffed because it seems like such a non-issue- a real "so what?".

[billisonboard]

May 13, 2011 9:28:11 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

Why are you "glad"? Anything that may mislead the public is good to not do. I'm really curious because I'm an agnostic on the issue. I'm not going to "oppose" it just because it's Obama, I'm just miffed because it seems like such a non-issue- a real "so what?". Does seem to be a very minor issue. But lets see what others think,

[txbo]

I’m with Paul on this. If not for re-enactment we would not have the nice pictures and statues of the Iwo Jima flag raising.

[jkapp]

I can understand why its done - who wants to watch the president give a speech with cameras flashing every few seconds?

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

...or those paintings of George Washington crossing the Delaware...but seriously, I just don't see why this, why now?

[brdsl]

I don't see why the media makes it out as such a big thing. It seems to me, like a simple housekeeping chore.

To Paul, why now?

Must be a slow news day....

[Mkitty is pro kitty]

I'm not going to "oppose" it just because it's Obama

If I didn't hate signatures, I would make that mine.

I'm just miffed because it seems like such a non-issue-

Um, when I see non-issues, I don't make threads about them, doth thou protest too much, Lady?

Must be a slow news day....

Well on one side of the fence, there's the Ensign case going to the Department of Justice, and the rookie House Republicans are begging Obama not to make the Dems use the Ryan Bill against them. And a Democrat is leading in New York's 26th district, which was specifically gerrymandered to be Republican (the election was due to the Craigslist scandal).

And on the other side are things like this, and oh noez! Common (who Fox praised months before) sang at the White House! And let's take that situation room picture and analyze it to death.

[fairlycrazy23]

May 13, 2011 10:16:07 GMT -5 brdsl said:

I don't see why the media makes it out as such a big thing. It seems to me, like a simple housekeeping chore.

To Paul, why now?

Must be a slow news day....

Because this is one of the most secretive and nontransparent administrations in a long time even as it claims to want transparency.
So ending this practice of re-enactment for pictures makes it seem like this is a step towards transparency , when it is almost meaningless.

[deziloooooo]

Guess they should have mentioned that to General MacArthur when he waded ashore , and ashore, and ashore from the LST in the Philippines, "I have returned", ["oops, lets do that again"}," I have returned", ["oops one more time on that, everyone back on the boat"], "I have ret.....

It's been done, and done, with them all..yet here it is food for gossip..LOL , unbelievable.