BAGnewsNotes

On Screen In Real Life

(revised 9:41 PST)

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I've been meaning to post this image for weeks now.  It appeared as part of a slide show on the Newsweek/MSNBC site following Fred Thompson's candidacy announcement.

Photographed in 2004 on the set of the TV show Law and Order, the photo features the program's star, Sam Waterston, as Assistant Executive District Attorney Jack McCoy (near right), real NYC Mayor Bloomberg in a cameo appearance, and the both real and fictional Thompson, the latter in the guise of DA Arthur Branch.

What is fabulous about this shot is what is also so significant about visual theorist W.J.T. Mitchell's book, What Do Pictures Want.  Mitchell takes the position that images have two discrete lives, one more literal and another more whimsical or imaginary.  In the mind of the viewer, however, Mitchell argues that each contains a complete integrity unto itself.

How is it that Reagan could have gotten away with "acting the Presidency," or Americans could bestow credibility on a completely unqualified, yet elaborately framed and consistently stage-managed George Bush?  The answer is that humans, in lending themselves to pictures, are simultaneously wired for a more concrete, factual inspection as well as a more fantasy or "make believe" one.

What is wonderful about an image like this is how it plays both ways.

In other words, at one level of perception, we  understand 100% that this is a set, Waterston is moving around in his day job, and that  Thompson and Bloomberg share equivalency as politicians.  At another level, however, what our brain tells us -- given the power of an image to assert its own internal reality --  is that DA Branch and McCoy are real, and that Bloomberg (smiling in recognition?) exists for the moment in that real imaginary world.

(image: Ed Reed / NYC Mayor's Office-AP.  2004. msnbc.com)

Saving Planets Earth

Bush Outlines Proposal on Climate Change - link.

(image: Chris Greenberg/White House.  Washington. September 28, 2007.  whitehouse.gov)

WTF

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Apparently, Ashley Gilbertson and I started to really figure out what we were doing about the same time.

While Ash was finding his legs as a war photographer for the NY Times, The BAG was practicing a visual analysis on the day-by-day images of the early period of the Iraq occupation.

Those paths first crossed in November '04, when I took issue with an image of a smoking GI.  Not only did I think the photo romanticized the war, I discovered -- via an email from a military mom -- that the soldier in the pic had been misidentified by The Times.  Four days later, I highlighted another Gilbertson image, this one of U.S. soldiers battling from the living room couch of an Iraqi apartment.  In that case, I used the visual to emphasize my admittedly purist argument against the military making hard use of Iraqi domestic space.

Since then, however, I've had a chance to view the larger body of Gilbertson's Iraq archive.  A few months back, if you recall, Ashley even provided The BAG with an evocative image that had been left out of a NYT slide show about Suaada Saadoun, an Iraqi widow who had been murdered by Sunni militia.

It might seem odd to say this, given the subject matter, but the quality that most characterizes Ashley's Iraq testimony is innocence.

Bush To WAPO: I'm Truman, You're ... Eating Out Of My Hand

While corporate media was being spun this week on the evils of Iran, it was also getting played on the campaign front.

This example involves a cute little post at WAPO's campaign blog, The Trail.  The entry, titled "Bush to Hillary Clinton: I'm Truman, You're Ike," featured the photo above, and opened as follows:

Karl Rove may not think much of Hillary Rodham Clinton's chances of winning the White House, but it sounds like President Bush is less sanguine. At an off-the-record lunch a week ago, Bush expressed admiration for her tenacity in the campaign. And he left some in the room with the impression that he thinks she will win the election and has been thinking about how to turn over the country to her.

Does anything smell fishy so far?

Well, here's my list:

1.  Any campaign piece that starts off with the words "Karl Rove" automatically deserves a double red flag.

2.  The Washington Post wants us to believe that Bush and Rove aren't on the same page when it comes to anything political?  ...All this time and WAPO still can't read a misdirection play?

More War Drum Concert Coverage: UN Edition

I apologize in advance for the redundancy.  If I seem stuck on the Bush-Mahmoud show, it's because I'm mirroring the obsessive telescoping of this week's war drum concert by the traditional media.

If the press wasn't so completely magnetized by star power and hysterical paranoia, I would be happy to feature the images of smaller, more dignified moments involving compelling world leaders who converged on the General Assembly from across the globe.  Unfortunately, however, the event, its scope and even the basic ideal of communication and common ground seems completely lost on the host country.

As such, there was not much notice of neighbors Chilean President Michelle Bachelet or Brazil's Lula da Silva, both perfectly charismatic and compelling figures.  Even Nicaraguan President and former Sandinista head Daniel Ortega, fitting the bill as Chavez-stand in, general bad guy and bombastic speech giver, failed to generate much notice either because, well, compared to the level of evil ascribed to other players, Mr. Ortega wasn't anywhere bad enough.

Did You Hear That Hitler Was In Town?

Didn't anybody learn anything from the cheerleading that greased the skids of the Bush 43 Gulf War?  Isn't there any spine left in the face of Dick and Georgette his Mini-Me?  Is our democracy so compromised right now that we wouldn't think, simply left to answer questions,  Ahmadinejad wouldn't dig a deep enough hole on his own -- without trying to insure the fact through  bullying and harrassment?

I mean, you almost expect it from a rag like the Daily News (reviving the lizard-brain Crusader "good versus evil" lingo, as well as the "greatest dictator in history" hyperbole). but what about everybody else?

For example, consider the small minded attack by Columbia President Bollinger preceding Ahmadinejad's Q. and A. at the university yesterday.  It's a sad day when the head of one of our leading academic institutions feels the need to build up his he-man credentials so people in high places won't try and make him pay for offering a microphone  to simply the worst dictator who ever lived.

And then, look at the body language and listen to the tone of 60 Minutes crimes against humanity prosecutor Administration surrogate reporter Scott Pelley.  Scott doesn't look as tough, however, after Ahmadinejad quick kicks him back to the 4th Estate.

And then, check out the last image CBS dropped into its Ahmadinejad slideshow.

Here's the caption:

A U.S. hostage (blindfolded) is seen Nov. 8, 1979, being paraded by his captors in the compound of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran. Five U.S. survivors of the 444-day siege later said they remembered seeing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during the dramatic 1979 takeover of the embassy. Iranian veterans of the standoff flatly denied that he was involved.

I can't (yet I can) believe that CBS would stoop so low.  I did a post on this image over two years ago, right after Mahmoud came to power ... when his connection to the Embassy hostage taking -- at least, as a front line participant -- was debunked.

(image 1: NY Daily News cover.  September 24, 2007. image 2: CBS 60 Minutes. September 23, 2007. via CBSnews.com.  image 3: AFP/Getty.  Tehran, Iran.  image 3: Getty Images. Tehran.  1979.)

Exposing A President Well Heeled*

Honestly, I never imagined anyone would ever pull the curtain back on The Great Intimidator.

... And it didn't even come from a back-stabbed former foot soldier or a half-bought off biographer.  Instead, the illumination comes via a cute Sunday travel/fashion piece on the new, hip, swimming-in-cash D.C.

Yes, the photo spread in yesterday's NYT Travel section not only exposed the persona of the Prez, but it nailed the rest of the story too, told in vibrant reds, along with some white and blue -- revealing how post 9/11 America came full circle, so that, today:

Politics Is Fashion...
Shopping is Patriotism...
and... War Is Accessorizing.

So, whereas the media has been scared to death to peel back even a single layer of the charade that is George Bush, this clever take-down, in the guise of a couture piece, simply dresses it up in ... a dress.

Yes, our chickenhawk, our codpiece, our Georgette -- in this dead-on interpretation -- is actually a fashion model.  A piece of eye candy.  The far right's anima.  Dick's Ford girl.

I love shot #1, of Georgette in the back of an open limo flanked by two "secret service agents" in deficit-busting suits by Zegna.  (Obviously, no expense is too great to support the troops that police the photo ops.)  I'm also intrigued by the possible "last-motorcade" allusion to JFK in that '61 Continental (via in-broad-daylight).  (This Administration, too, has become legendary by death.  Led by this pretty poser, however, all the dying is by proxy).

I love #2.  Seven years in front of the cameras and Georgette hasn't said a damn thing.  And, not like she ever intended to.  But then, what do you expect, when you depend on your news from the microphones of WIM?

What I really love, though, is shot #3 (above).  Check this caption:

LADY LIBERTY On the Lincoln Memorial steps: Valentino cashgora skirt suit, $4,530. Thomas Pink shirt, $130. LaCrasia gloves. Countess Mara tie. Hermès bag. Christian Louboutin shoes.

What a riot!  It's not just Georgette (who re-branded the military salute as White House sign language years ago), but also the neocon's Lady Liberty.  Okay, ready?  "I pledge allegience, to the flesh, of the United States of Hermès."  (By the way, any extra fabric for those huddled masses?)

But the real screamer is the proximity to still another uniform.  (We all know the drill:  Another day, another Georgette sighting at a base, depot, yard, post, dock, proving ground, armory, fort, camp, barracks, facility, field, reservation, installation or garrison.)  How timely, though, that this prop -- sporting a line of medals -- has his head cut off.  (I say, beware the soldier these days who, lacking his own head, might have the urge to Betray Us.)  From the start, though, these guys have been voiceless and mindless in all this, right?  Also intriguing are the two Marines marching up the steps.  Some funereal news for Mr. Lincoln, perhaps?

And then, I didn't notice the price on the uniform.

*A note on "well-heeled" here. View slide show here.  "Capitol Gains" article here.

(image: Miles Aldridge.  New York Times.  T Magazine.  September 24, 2007. nytimes.com)

Nouri Hits Condi With A Ban

Better kick the Anbar take-over into overdrive, because we're losing Baghdad.  With the Ahmadinejad show heading for town, U.N. festivities got started with a discernible chill between Condi and Maliki.

And then I was wondering, with Iraq making noises about more U.N. involvement, how much has the agency's low profile been the result of the '03 Iraq bombing, the neocons, Oil for Food, or the fact Ban Ki-moon (circle) hasn't yet figured out how to get on Leno?

PR-wise, I'm keeping an eye out the body language in the expected mid-week Bush-Maliki photo op.

(image: David Karp/AP.  September 22, 2007.  U.N. Headquarters/New York.  Via YahooNews)

For The Soldier Of Fortune Calendar. Plus: Helo A Situation

"Support Our ... Mercenaries?"

Given that the movement of U.S. diplomatic personnel in Iraq is completely dependent on Blackwater, it is no surprise the company is operating again.  Give it another week, and most questions about the 25,000 to 100,000 "security contractors" (nobody seems to have a reliable count) will probably disappear also.  And then, so much for the Iraqi Government we keep urging to stand up to stand down on its contractor ban.

While the issue is still on the radar screen, however, the newswire has some pics-for-thought.

Not only did Photographer Patrick Baz lend these portrait shots of disguised private security forces on a Baghdad rooftop, he managed to actually slip the word "mercenary" into one of the two captions.  (Technically, I believe, American nationals in Iraq cannot be labeled "mercenaries" because America is involved in a war there -- but all those Blackwater Bosnians, Filipinos, and Chileans can.) 

My question is, did these guys just automatically know to pose like they were shooting a movie poster?

By the way, that is a U.S. military helicopter in the first shot -- as distinguished from the black-and-white striped Blackwater fleet.  What I also can't understand, -- given the average Iraqi's distain for this outfit -- is why Blackwater has the aerial presence in the first place.  In reference to the offensiveness, the newswires currently also offer a number of file shots of Blackwater helicopter buzzing Baghdad mosques.
---
UPDATE: 9/22/07.

I guess Iraq isn't backing off on Blackwater so fast after all.

(image 1 and 2:  Patrick Baz/AFP.  September 18, 2007.  Baghdad.  Via YahooNews.  image 3: Hadi Mizban/A.P.  November 24 2004. Baghdad. Via YahooNews.)

Window On Jena

First off, I should say I haven't looked at a wider cross-section of media images from Thursday's march in Jena.

Through the window of the one NYT slide show, based on 12 photos by Times photographer Damon Winter, however, I have an editorial and a historical observation.  (For easier reference, by the way, each image is numbered and linked to as a pop-up at the bottom of the post.)

From the accounts I read, it seemed the march was notably peaceful, even festive.  This series of photos, however, seems to be "looking for trouble." 

For example: