Blue Crab Boulevard

Are You Kidding Me?

Charles over at Little Green Footballs has a post about the New York Times, images and photographers. What's wrong with this picture? Well, it's a picture of a sniper from the Mahdi Army. The problem is, he's in the process of shooting at American troops.

Assistant Managing Editor for Photography Michele McNally comments on this one:

A sniper loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr fires towards U.S. positions in the cemetery in Najaf, Iraq.

Michele McNally: “Right there with the Mahdi army. Incredible courage.”

I'm going to point out something that appears to be beyond the mental grasp of the New York Times, photographer Joao Silva and Mr. McNally. The "brave photographer" may have taken a picture of a terrorist killing an American soldier. The "brave photographer" put his desire to take a photograph to publish in his book above the lives of his fellow citizens.

I take this very personally, for rather obvious reasons. As far as I am concerned, this is actively assisting the enemy with propaganda. It is also tantamount to accessory before the fact and a criminal act. And if I ever meet Mr. Silva or Mr. McNally, we'll have us a little discussion about that subject.

UPDATE: Maybe we could take up a collection to fly this guy in to see Mr. Silva? (That's a joke, by the way).

Crime, Media, War | Gaius Sunday, 16 July , 2006

By D. B. Light, Sunday, 16 July , 2006 @ 8:07 am

I believe that the photographer, Joao Silva, is not a U.S. citizen. He was born in Portugal and currently resides in South Africa. It is likely that he has no side in the Iraq conflict. That being said, his employers at the NYT are a despicable lot.
By Gaius, Sunday, 16 July , 2006 @ 8:15 am

Yes they are. These are not decent pictures for an American newspaper to show.
By crosspatch, Monday, 17 July , 2006 @ 12:09 am

Our news media has become nothing more than morbid entertainment. Journalists and photojournalists nothing more than pornographers. I can not think of anyone with a shred of common decency who would print such a thing in our country. I don’t imagine there are many “Gold Star” families subscribing to the NYT. In fact, the NYT has made a pretty blatent statement that they really don’t care about their readers who might have lost a loved one to this guy.

The logical progression of this is the NYT taking pictures of serial killers as they are about to kill their victims. I will bet it won’t be long, probably less than a decade, before we see such filth in that paper. What kind of parents raised these people at The New York Times? They are a disgrace to their own upbringing.
By Roland Hesz, Monday, 17 July , 2006 @ 3:04 am

It’s a staged photo.

How can we know the guy was really a Mahdi sniper, and not someone dressed up as one?
By Roland Hesz, Monday, 17 July , 2006 @ 3:15 am

But, it still a quite disturbing, I do agree.
By Gaius, Monday, 17 July , 2006 @ 4:39 am

If it’s staged, then the editor is lying. Which is worse? It’s morally twisted either way in my mind.
By Roland Hesz, Monday, 17 July , 2006 @ 7:49 am

I do agree, it’s twisted.

It’s just if you think about it: if you were the sniper, would you let a foreign photo-journalist stand behind your back when you try to ambush your enemies? Let someone bust your attack either by accident or intentionally?