Some Questions Over Favoritism

Examining this photo sequence accompanying Saturday's NYT front page article dealing with whether the candidates are getting a fair shake from the media, The BAG wonders if any opinion is telegraphed here?

As the front runner, it makes sense that Obama would be on top.  But for someone often accused of having his head in the clouds, exactly where is his head?  And, for a story about media treatment, isn't it a bit loaded to have that reporter, at waist-level, looking up to an elevated Obama that way?

And then, in comparison, Hillary (directing her comments to who-knows-who) doesn't exactly come off like the center of attention, does she?

On the Press Bus, Some Questions Over Favoritism (NYT)
The Myth of Objectivity (Newsweek)

(image 1: Damon Winter/The New York Times. image 2: Todd Heisler/The New York Times. nyt.com)

Comments

[Julie]

I thought the first pic was about Huckabee - that reporter resembles him. Why in heaven's name did they cut off Obama's head? Is there an assassination plot that they are telegraphing here? And such an unflattering Hillary pic...

sheesh

[black dog barking]

Two campaigns, both besieged by non-friendlies (one or two pegs below hostile). One campaign is keeping its head up, maybe just slightly above the fray but maintaining some breathing space. The other, slowly sinking. Quagmire.

[plum]

Here's another highly manipulative photo of Obama.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/us/politics/02campaign.html

Talk about pushing the Messiah meme...

[jtfromBC]

more fluff articles
corporate media navel gazing
favoritism or objectivity ?
hell its critical questions about Iraq that's imperative !

Help Wanted: reporters with integrity, guts and audacity to challenge the foggy and vague responses of both Clinton and Obama on Iraq, the number one issue in the USA.

I may need a shrink, after looking at the pics my neurons kicked in with this image http://www.designboom.com/history/nipper.html

[Johanna]

Hillary has some phrases and ways of speaking I haven't heard since elementary school -- and the phrase "it's imperative..." is one of them. No adult should be told "it's imperative.." so can we stop using that phrase? "Compare and contrast..." is another phrase used by teachers to students. Barack Obama, meet me in the principal's office and let's discuss your deportment. Wasn't her angry display last weekend with its command to "meet me" also out of teacher/student relations?

[jtfromBC]

Hillary as female is more vulnerable for subtle sexists attacks, while being black, protects Obama in certain ways, notice reporters often take longer to frame certain questions ~ being cautious or sensitive or PC.
In this sense Hillary is disadvantaged, and her challenge of always going first is valid.
If eligible I would vote RN who has probably saved my life a number of times ~

[Esoth]

As soon as I peeled the Saturday Times out of its blue bag and saw the vertical split/screen photos and the attending headlines, I thought of Bagnews, as it was the perfect visualization of the Times' Hillary-centric themes. Obama on top, Hillary, under siege but amidst the fray, mixing it up in the familiar arena against her familiar foes in the press. Hillary, grounded and experienced, giving it back as good as she gets it. Working the room in search of solutions.

Obama, OTOH, by now so levitated that he threatens to ascend right out of frame, the assembled press with eyes upward, holding out their mikes like supplicants seeking indulgences, or bit players in the 2008 version of the Oberammergau Passion Play (see, "Twentieth Century" (1934) with John Barrymore and Carole Lombard). The most striking part of Obama's split/screen, is, of course, that he is breathing such rarefied air that he is no longer earth-bound and the top half of his head has elevated right out of sight. Not to worry, because his mouth, voice box, and lungs are still with us in the photo, and since the Obama Experience (in the Hillary and Times narrative) is a strictly check-your-head-at-the-door affair (no thinking required).

[lytom]

Both pictures show the fixation of the media on the words of the candidates, which they will then regurgitate and present to the public so that the public hysteria can take it further and feed the movement on. Titanic is sinking yet the media is asking the candidates if the sinking is the right word to use and how to make it even more convincing...issues are pushed back, it is the "me" generation that matters.