BAGnewsNotes

John Edwards: Parting View

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Yesterday, I had my say on the Edwards withdrawal.  Today, I want to share this photo by Alan Chin taken at the announcement in New Orleans on Tuesday.

Chin writes:

The scene was cold, and the ground wet and muddy. The Habitat For Humanity staff and volunteers were expecting Edwards to make a "major speech on poverty," as had been billed, but instead he came to throw in the towel. He did so with a certain dignity and eloquence: "It’s time for me to step aside so that history can — so that history can blaze its path."

Having covered him often and having been here so often, I was impressed, despite my usual cynicism, with the deliberate choice of both beginning and ending his bid for the Presidency amidst houses still destroyed from Hurricane Katrina.  By the contemporary standards of American political life, he had run a decent and spirited campaign.

I invite you to open the image and really look at it.  I find it a fitting portrait and parting view.

The weathered look not only contradicts the ascribed pretty boy aura, but seems to capture the edge of a weariness guaranteed to descend after unplugging from of the perpetual adrenaline rush of the campaign.  I have to also say, he looks like he really gives a damn, above and beyond any shallow debate regarding any need or reflex to continue to look like he does.

I think there are a several other elements here that are also powerful, which I leave to you to excavate.

(image: © Alan Chin.  Ninth Ward of New Orleans, La.  January 30, 2008.  Used by permission)

More On The '08 Show -- Including CNN's Phallic Boost To The GOP

I thought it was worth a minute to get a sense of the media's investment in dramatizing and producing the '08 election.  Since yesterday, the scale has been a sight to see.

The video -- which I borrowed from CNN because there was no way to capture a link to it, although I tried hard to find one, email myself one, etc. -- shows the effort they went to to construct the GOP debate set at the Reagan library. 

The image below is an ad for tonight's Dem debate in Hollywood (where else?), painted on the side of a huge building off the Harbor freeway.  Nice touch, with the double row of palm trees leading to, well, you get it.

Familiar face to be missing from GOP debate (CNN debate coverage.  Plus, I love Gloria Borger in front of that plane.)
Inside the Air Force One pavilion  (Ventura County Star)

(video: Time-lapse construction of CNN's California Republican Presidential debate set - CNN.  image : Mark Halperin. TIME. thepage.time.com)

The Edwards Exhibit

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(BNN contributer Alan Chin is in N.O. this week, and may be sending us some images of the last day of the Edwards campaign.  In the meantime, I wanted to return to the beginning.)

From the first day he entered the presidential race, the NYT treated Edwards like a phony.

In this headline, "Exhibit A" can be read two different ways.  More objectively, it describes Edwards' use of New Orleans as an example of what is wrong with our country and our political values.  Because of the dubious tone of the article, however -- packaged with another one slapped on the end of it reporting how Edwards had just sold his Georgetown house for $5.2 million -- there is another, less friendly read here.  In this light, the city of New Orleans, and particularly, this group of kids behind him, serve as an exhibit for Edwards.

Of course, Edwards' announcement -- the candidate in jeans, against the backdrop of the Lower Ninth Ward -- did employ political theatre.  That a lot of people -- including The Times -- however, would interpret this as an exploitation of New Orleans, or a manipulation of the poverty issue, or  a fake show of compassion (which is what was hinted at in article after article, and surely played a large role in undermining the candidacy) is incredibly cynical.

I'm not putting forth the argument, by the way, that Edwards was a perfect messenger.  But I am curious to see now -- without Edwards to address it -- how much America's decaying corners continue to merit any form of exhibit.

New Orleans Is Exhibit A as Edwards Opens His Presidential Campaign (12/29/06 - NYT)
Abruptly, Edwards Ends His White House Bid (NYT - notice the comment about the three "H's.")
Update From Breck World (or: Who's Wearing John's Pants?) (BNN)
Taking Aim At Edwards (BNN)
The NYT's Edwards Clip Job (BNN)

(image: Amanda McCoy/Getty Images.  December, 2006.  New Orleans. nytimes.com)

Outside Heath Ledger's Apartment

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"For the illusion of credibility, it had to be framed as a tribute to a legacy,
instead of about earning money and ratings."

Deviating a bit from our usual, Peter van Agtmael forwarded these images to The BAG.  (If you remember, Peter offered us photos, two months back, of soldier's graffiti from a U.S. staging facility in Kuwait.)  As Peter relates:

These are pictures I snapped outside Heath Ledger's apartment on the night of his death. By the time I got there, the media hubbub had died down a bit, but I think these still represent the bizarre scene that ensued.

In this first image, with the photographers gathered, I could see this being made to look bigger than it was.  But this memorial of flowers was just a small tribute set up by one person -- like something you might see on the roadside for the victim of a car crash.  Because this was not an event of public grieving, the little memorial speaks to that.

Overall, there hasn't been much appreciation for the guy, and there has been little celebration for his work as an actor.  If anything, it seems there has been much more of an interest in his toxicology test.  Its been a pretty negative, if unsurprising reflection on media and humanity.

I think this second photo is the best one I took that night.  Posing for a picture, these two girls are clearly smirking but pretending to cry.

*** ** ***

Part of the reason I decided to go down to photograph the scene was a certain feeling of bitterness.  Last year, I shot a story about the life and death of a friend, a young army medic I met in Baghdad, who died of a drug overdose.  The circumstances of his death were equally ambiguous, but there is no doubt that his life was a mess, with severe PTSD from two tours to iraq coupled with the disintegration of his marriage.

When I heard about Ledger, the two stories seemed to fuse in my mind, saying something about how lives are valued in this country.

>> If you have questions or comments for Peter, he'll be available to respond in the discussion thread. <<

(images: © Peter van Agtmael/Polaris Images.  New York.  January 2008.  Used by permission.)

My Last Look At A Bush SOTU, Thank God

I grabbed these myself, right off the screen.

Because, what I wanted to remember was that unformed conscience...  that complete adolescent just lingering, lingering, lingering in that chamber, going absolutely nowhere, signing autograph after autograph after autograph, sucking the last spotlight.

SOTU '07 Wrap Up: Jim, Nancy, George, Hillary, Barack, Dennis, Chris, Wesley, Laura and More (1/24/07)
State Of The Union In Pictures (2/1/06)
State of the Union Show (2/2/05)

(screen grabs via CNN.  State of the Union. Washington.)

The McCain Line

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by Stephen Ferry

Today's NYT has a prime example of photographer Stephen Crowley's irreplaceable political observation.

The relatively relaxed posture of the two McCains contrasts well with the tense-ish, on-the-ball-of-one-foot stride of the press secretary, who is professionally on duty, yet nonetheless dressed down.  Perhaps McCain's appeal as a plain speaker is based on this real lack of pretension, or so this seemingly unrehearsed moment would suggest.

All three are crossing the threshold from a beige triangular space into a larger lighter beige one,  symbolizing to me the passage from the limited contests up to now, onto the vast arena of Super Tuesday and beyond, where things are clearer,  though not black-and-white.  As can be literally seen in the picture,  McCain is still not the clear front-runner going into that larger arena as his campaign strides ahead.  Yet, he is confident, the perceived warrior heading fearlessly, purposefully, into the unknown.

On The Ropes

Look at this thumbnail image that appeared today on the on-line version of The Times in Print.  (I grayed out the type to emphasize the visual.)

Of course, compared to image in the article article itself, the you don't notice the same effect -- with Hillary so dramatically severed from Teddy.  (Although a miniscule example, it speaks to the same kind of instinct for dramatics I was getting at in Sunday's post about the media peddling a Barack - Bubba war.)

By the way, I'd be curious what you thought of the full image, shot on Cape Cod in '97.  Reinforcing concerns about who's candidacy it is, and rumors that Kennedy made his endorsement out of disgust over last week's tone in SC, notice who's in the drivers seat.

SOT (incredibly shrinking) U

It's the cover visual of a 7,500 word article about a worldwide political and economic movement toward interdependence -- a bus the U.S. forgot to get on.

It's striking for the fact the U.S. is pictured in complete isolation, in a sea of darkness.

Also following the article, those massive and powerful fingers would likely represent Europe and China, reaching around from "two ends of the great Eurasian land mass" to apply the squeeze.

Above all, however, its a fitting illustration to offer up the day before Bush's last SOTU.

image from: Waving Goodbye to Hegemony (NYT Mag cover story)
Bush Would Never ‘Cease To Be Bold,’ But Now ‘Will Skip Bold Proposals’ In State Of The Union Speech (Think Progress)

(photo illustration:  Kevin Van Aelst.  January 27, 2008.  NYT Mag cover.  nytimes.com)

Palestinians And Palestinians

A consistent problem in the visual coverage of the Gaza story, and the Palestinian crisis overall, involves the inability to differentiate a Palestinian public from, say,  Hamas. (The same problem exists, by the way, in the visual coverage and characterization of Israelis.  As fundamentalist settlers and right-wing extremists exploit the attention, they, too, tend to become more representative of the public at large.)

To illustrate, take these two shots I was looking at the day before the Gaza wall was breached.

I would say this first shot is more representative of the Palestinians of Gaza.  It shows men and boys lining up at a food truck food at the height of the Israeli blockade.  Anonymous and candid, I doubt most of these people -- except, maybe, the kid in the middle seeming to look at the camera -- knew they were even being photographed.

Contrast that with the second shot.  The caption, which appeared in a WAPO slideshow, read as follows:

Palestinians protest in front of the Rafah crossing, calling on Egypt to open its border with the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians?  That is not the Palestinian flag, it is the Hamas flag.  Thus, the proper designation for the people here might better be described as "Hamas followers" or "Hamas sympathizers."

Putting The Peddle To The Mettle

Last week, Clinton advisers believed Mr. Clinton was rattling Mr. Obama and drawing his focus away from his message. The results on Saturday indicated, instead, that voters were impressed with Mr. Obama’s mettle and agreed with him that the Clintons ran an excessively negative campaign here.

-- From NYT 1/26/07 News Analysis: "Obama Weathers A Test Of Mettle."

With Zogby warning the race was tightening, and the media convinced Bubba had gotten into Barack's head, this proved a quintessential photo in the South Carolina media narrative.  (It appeared in Friday's NYT "On The Trail" slideshow.)

What I was specifically wondering, however, is what the caption might have looked like if those Clinton advisors had dictated that too:

Clearly, the campaign was distracted and agitated, the mood as cold and hard as that manilla block wall at Kingstree Senior High School.  Axelrod kept repeating that they couldn't lose, but nobody was listening.  Gibbs, the communications director, just kept his head down, playing with his Blackberry. Obama, of course, was the picture of disgust.  He kept looking off in the distance, as if enduring Clinton spouting off again.  His focus clearly drawn away from his message, Obama grumbled:  "These notes...  Why, they're not worth the paper their written on!"

Surely, that's how it went down.

Next episode: Tired of "change" and "hope," Super Tuesday voters clamor for "mettle."

Obama Weathers a Test of Mettle (NYT)
On The Trail Slideshow (1/24/08 - NYT)

(image: Damon Winter/The New York Times.  Kingstree, South Carolina.  January 24, 2008. nytimes.com)