BAGnewsNotes

McCain, Middle East Oil, And, Uh, What's Up With That Pipe?

My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will — that will then prevent us — that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.

-- John McCain, May 1, 2008

My friends, I thought the latest cover of "ARMY" was interesting even before McCain suggested we went to war over oil.  (A reader sent this to me on Tuesday, and McCain put his foot in his mouth on Friday.)

There was only one problem, however.  My reader assumed this was an oil pipe, but I've been burned enough times in making assumptions that I was taking nothing for granted.  The complicating factor, though, was that the magazine also failed to specify.  (In possession of the hard copy, my reader scanned the cover with ARMY's description of the cover affixed to the lower-left corner.)  Because the magazine's website wasn't any more helpful, I did some image searches on oil pipelines.  I found several cross-sections that looked almost identical to the picture above, but I still wasn't convinced.

Who Do You Think You're Fueling?

What is sleazy about Clinton's South Bend "fill 'er up" photo op, featuring recruited sheet metal worker Jason Wilfing, is not his function as a prop.  It's that the truck isn't even Wilfing's.

According to the LAT, the secret service rejected using Wilfing's vehicle (perhaps, for security reasons).  Which leaves the question: what was he driving?  Absent a front license plate, is it a secret service vehicle?  Not that most photo ops aren't duplicitous by definition, but what makes this one particularly choice, as reported, is the fact that Wilfing and Clinton drove around pretending to look for gas while leading a caravan of eight secret service SUV's.

Of course, after they pulled into this Marathon station -- the waiting photographers already perfectly positioned -- Wilfing comes off the perfect owner.

Anatomy of a Hillary Clinton photo op -- the pictures and the reality (LAT)

(images: Elise Amendola/AP.  South Bend, Ind.  May 01, 2008 via YahooNews)

(VF + Miley) x Annie = Kaching Kaching

But why are the media so obsessed with manufactured conflicts involving movie stars and singers and celebrities on the A-thru-D list? What's really happening behind a trend that sandwiches the Cyrus episode between reports of deaths in Iraq and the rising price of gasoline on most major news networks in the United States?

What's happening is this: The politics of distraction meets the careerist strategies of a young female gold mine. When "greed meets the lead," it's yet another example of how pandering kills the news. Those who don't work in communications can't possibly imagine how deeply planned events like the Cyrus photo shoot are, and how constructed these seemingly coincidental controversies can be.
...
Too bad we can't see that each time we allow ourselves to be manipulated by the myriad publicists who help manufacture these controversies, we're not just molesting these girls, we're also killing the idea of the news.

from: Syl Jones: Accidentally, on purpose (StarTribune.com)

I admit, I had no idea who Miley Cyrus was a week ago.

Why I find this shot interesting, however, is not because it echoes the specific image that tainted Hannah Montana, or even because of the social manipulation and political misdirection referred to above.

It's because it captures Annie Leibovitz -- a far more significant cultural icon than this 15-year-old will ever be -- in the act of serving up one more cultural molotov cocktail.

The Miley Cyrus Photo Shoot (video - VF)
Tween Angel (slide show - VF)
Reading The Pictures:  Between Bush's TuTu and Tu Tu's Bush (Shaw - Huffington Post)
Your Turn: Vogue + LaBron (Kong?) + Gisele = Kaching (BNN)

(image: unattributed. Vanity Fair. June 2008)

Obama On Trial (Or: Media Completely Wright, Wright, Wright, Wright, Wright On This One)

(click to enlarge)

But Steve Achelpohl, the Nebraska Democratic chairman who recently endorsed Mr. Obama, called the controversy over Mr. Wright “a bump in the road” for the candidate. Mr. Achelpohl said he thought — or hoped — that Mr. Obama’s denunciation of Mr. Wright on Tuesday would move the campaign beyond the problem.

“I think it’s been blown way out of proportion, and people will realize that,” he said. “This is a media-driven thing and a presidential candidate shouldn’t have to vet every person that he has had a relationship with in his life.”

With the near week-long pre-Pennsylvania media orgy over the "bitter" comments still fresh in mind, you can see, above, how yesterday's Day Four pre-Indiana/N. Carolina installment of the Wright paroxysm played out in the NYT dead tree edition.

The front page treatment and the double, jumbo-sized pics beautifully capture how the media has blown the Wright situation out of all proportion (while lending more understanding to Obama's look of disgust on page A17).  Noteworthy, as well, is the comparison between the two images at either end of that page -- the latter of which has the feel of crowing.

And, as a visual illustration by itself, what follows is a list of the NYT Obama-Wright links since Monday:

quote from: Wright Remains a Concern for Some Democrats (Thursday NYT)
After Break With Ex-Pastor, Obama Tries to Move On (Thursday NYT)
Primary Loss and Furor Over Ex-Pastor Hurt Obama in Poll (Thursday NYT)
A Strained Wright-Obama Bond Finally Snaps (Thursday NYT)
While Clinton Focuses, Obama Is Distracted (Thursday NYT)
Obama Breaks Forcefully With Ex-Pastor Over Fiery Remarks
(Print Headline: an angry obama renounces ties to his ex-pastor) ( Wed NYT)
Mr. Obama and Rev. Wright (Wed NYT)
Praying and Preying (Wed NYT)
Clinton Tweaks Obama on Wright (Wed NYT)
The TV Watch: Not Speaking for Obama, Pastor Speaks for Himself, at Length (Tues NYT)
Blogtalk: The Wright-Obama Drama (Tues - NYT)
Obama Says He’s Outraged by Ex-Pastor’s Comments (Tues - NYT)
Obama Adds to Distance From Pastor (Tues NYT)
The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Speaks for Himself (Tues NYT)
The Pastor Casts a Shadow (Tues NYT)
Obamas Wright Response (Tues NYT)
Dribbling Past Reverend Wright (Tues NYT)
Former Pastor of Obama Says He Isn’t Divisive (Mon NYT)
Obama Addresses Ex-Pastor’s Media Blitz (Mon NYT)
Wright Defends Church and Blasts Media (Mon NYT)
McCain Criticizes Remarks by Obama’s Former Pastor (Mon NYT)
The Early Word: McCain Takes Up Wright Issue (Mon NYT)

The BAGnewsNotes Visual Newsfeed

If you haven't yet focused on it, there is a new feature of the site that I'm particularly proud of.  It's the BNN Visual Newsfeed and it's sitting right over there in the left column.

Supplementing The BAG's daily offering, I have created a feed which culls from the best of photojournalism news, a grouping of contemporary photography blogs, and an emerging blogosphere dealing with social and documentary photography, as well as visual politics.

Besides taking in these headlines each time you visit The BAG, I'm hope you'll click through when you see something interesting, and get acquainted with some thoughtful and interesting visual sites.

American Bombing Of Sadr City: Like Qana, But Without The Attention?

Now that the U.S. -- desperate to protect the Green Zone, and avoid a Saigon-style evacuation -- is actively bombing Sadr City, what is the difference between what the Americans are doing, and what the Israeli's did in Qana during the '06 Lebanon war?

Above is yesterday's photo of two-year-old Ali Hussein, pulled from the bombed rubble of his home, who died shortly after in the hospital.  It's the shot which could have, would have and otherwise should have woken up all the sheep and cast a fiery and pin-pointed attention on the urban carnage inflicted on an overcrowded, poverty-stricken, urban Baghdad slum by U.S. fighter bombers.

So I ask, what is the difference -- in morality, shock effect and potential political fallout -- between the shot from Sadr City above, and the near-identical scene below that rocked the world, shamed the Israelis, and burned Qana into the world's consciousness ... besides the lack of media access and attention?

About a photo, about Iraq (Kansas City Star)
Several believed dead in US air raids in Baghdad (AFP)

(image 1: Karim Kadim/AP.  April 29, 2008. Sadr City, Baghdad.  via Kansas City Star.  image 2: ©Tim Fadek.  July 30, 2006.  Qana, Lebanon.  Used by permission.  Please seek permission before republication.)

Green Zone Fireworks

Dramatic shot, yes?

This image, from yesterday's newswire, was taken over the embattled Green Zone in Iraq.  I offer the photo less as documentation of battle, however, than as evidence of how the MSM, in small ways as well as large, continues to censor itself in collusion with the government.

What am I talking about?  Well, can you tell what's happening just from looking at this image?  From WAPO's caption in its April 29th "Day In Pictures" slide show, you can get some of the meaning:

April 28: A U.S. Army medevac helicopter flies over rising smoke in the heavily-fortified Green Zone in Baghdad. At least 38 died in some of the most violent clashes in the capital in weeks.

Still, isn't it curious why WAPO fails to describe, let alone even mention, those projectiles below the helicopter?  Is it enemy fire (the news of which would potentially stir people up, seeing the nerve center of our Iraq mission -- as well as the HQ of our installed government -- subject to such dramatic bombardment)?  Is it coalition fire?  Are they flares?

Well, I went searching for the original caption that AP distributed with the photo, and it reads as follows:

A U.S. Army medevac helicopter flies over rising smoke in the heavily-fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, on Monday, April 28, 2008. Shiite extremists lobbed rockets or mortar shells at the U.S. protected Green Zone on Monday, as U.S. and Iraqi troops engaged militants in the most violent clashes in weeks in Baghdad, killing at least 38.

Funny what the presence or absence of a few words can do.  What the WAPO caption does, in this case, is relegate the image to a visual genre the Administration established in Iraq from Day One.  You can file it under fireworks show.

Friday's MSNBC piece is a must read:  New U.S. embassy complex in Green Zone lacks adequate housing. Hundreds of U.S. workers living in unprotected trailers.  More than a dozen killed in latest series of attacks. New U.S. embassy in Iraq short on housing. (msnbc.msn.com)
2 US Troops Killed, 21 Wounded; 37 Iraqis Killed in Baghdad Clashes (Juan Cole)

(image: Khalid Mohammed - AP.  April 28, 2008.  Baghdad. via WAPO)

Afghan Update: A Running Metaphor

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I wish this image was more difficult to analyze (and was less of a metaphor for the current state of the GWOT)...

U.S. takes on Afghanistan.  U.S. takes eye off ball.  President Karzai reduced to mayor of Kabul.  Afghan soldiers scatter at national military parade during weekend assassination attempt on "the mayor."

Karzai Escapes Attack in Kabul by Gunmen (NYT)

(image: Massoud Hossaini/Agence France-Presse—Getty Images.  April 7, 2008.  Kabul.  via nytimes.com)

Stuffing Wright Vs. The Right Stuff

Asked about those who wondered about his love of the U.S. in light of his "God d--- America" comments during a sermon, Wright said "those citizens who say that have never heard my sermons, nor do they know me...I served six years in the military, does that make me patriotic? How many years did (Vice President Dick) Cheney serve?"

--ABC News Political Punch blog

With Reverend Wright's mug curently blanketing the media, one picture I don't expect to see making the rounds is this one.

Presented by Bill Moyers during his extended interview with the Reverend earlier this week, the photo shows six-year veteran and Naval cardiopulmonary technician, Jeremiah Wright (beyond the I.V. stand), monitoring President Johnson's heart as he recovers from gall bladder surgery at Bethesda.

Sorry if I'm unable to join the media parade, impugning Wright as an angry black malcontent in a daishikis, or just completely tossing him in a more "pragmatic" way, as simply a hopeless egomaniac or a strategic liability to the Obama campaign.

(updated 12:07 pm PST)

2 part Bill Moyers interview with Jeremiah Wright (PBS)
Nice Little Gem From Anderson Cooper Blog (CNN)
Why Is It So Quiet After the Moyers-Wright Interview? (Dave Winer - Huffington Post)

(image: Bill Moyers Journal)

Obama The Alien

(three panel illustration of Newsweek.com's lead story flash-animation headline)

If The BAG has been concentrating on Newsweek lately, it's because that publication has taken the lead in visually contorting Obama.  Last week, the mission involved tying Obama to Kerry and branding him a wimp.  This week, the characterization is more odious. 

Overall, this layout goes to town (or, away from town, actually)  by applying the metaphor of being "from the other side of the tracks." 

>> The fact that Obama has his back to us (an orientation I've seen more and more of in the last month or so) emphasizes an "otherness"; an anonymity; a sense of the stranger.  (And then, Obama's positioning on the opposing platform also clues that he and small town America are moving in opposite directions.)

>> It's hard not to see race as an element here also.  Maybe it's not true that the people across the platform are mostly white.  And, maybe that white building has no effect in effecting a color chasm.  Even so, just the reference to black man "on the far side of town" (not to mention, the black man on the outside, looking in) is enough to make the point. 

>> The fact he's carrying bottled water perhaps also adds an elitist touch? 

One more thing, by the way.

A couple days ago, I blogged about the day-after-Pennsylvania photos of Hillary and Obama on their respective campaign planes.  My thesis there involved the visual media beginning to frame Obama as asocial, a loner, or as someone who sets himself apart.  The problem, however, was that I was fitting the thesis to the image much more than the photo, or the article(s) it accompanied, projected it.

I do think this shot, however -- combined with the headline, and also factoring the print cover of this issue -- better reflects what I was getting at.  Greasing the tracks, Obama -- beyond the ostracization evoked by the racial tropes -- might as well be an alien, fundamentally disconnected from society, from the community, from people like "you and me."

Last Minute Shadow Of Doubt (Shooting Obama -- "the stranger" -- from behind -- TIME, via BNN) 
This issue's Arugula and Beer Print Cover with article summaries (BNN)

(image: Charles Ommanney/Getty Images for Newsweek. 2008. newsweek.com)