In terms of pictures, there were better shots of the doctors filling the room or backing up the President on stage. None, though, captured the storyline of the last few weeks as well as this one. With Obama having performed his due diligence with defiant Republicans to craft and cast the bill as bipartisan, and having otherwise given fresh meaning to the term “exhausting the process,” the subtext of the photo — the mutual admiration and the flash not withstanding — is: “enough already!”

Mar 02, 2010 in Disaster Focus | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Give credit for a clever visual statement about the inherent hypocrisy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (embellished by the tightly-closed lips and the hands over the privates). I'm mean, just because I'm wearing a pink uniform …

On the Ground in Chile: A Civilian’s View

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Wouldn’t the measure of “victory” — given the context of the photo — be a U.S. withdrawal?

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What is wrong with the Afghan coverage this week — if you’re trying to make sense of the pictures — is 1.) fragmentation and 2.) inanity.

Sen. Bunning’s Three Strikes: Party of “No,” Privilege and Mean

How many times must we suffer through this same kind of character assassination by the media in criminalizing behavior that, under catastrophic circumstances, is normal and expectable.  If this photograph showed Chilean citizens running from a store with boxes of brand new large screen TV’s — especially given widespread power outages — that’d be one thing. But really!

Feb 28, 2010 Afghanistan: Passing Snapshot of a Down and Dirty War

Because American troops don’t trust the Afghan police farther than they can throw them (1, 2, 3) and because the Afghan cops are notorious for drug abuse and other nefarious behavior, I found this photo almost hilarious. It’s part of a propaganda photo-op showing US soldiers teaching Afghan police (no, not how to shoot up, but) how to administer EMT techniques.

Feb 28, 2010 in War On Iraq/Afghanistan | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

There are several frames in the Bunning FU/”the hell with unemployment benefits” video that set back the GOP weeks, if not months.

The consequences of the Copenhagen climate talks going to pieces? Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Isn’t Newsweek simply repeating the original sin of declaring “Mission Accomplished” based on the latest supposed milestone — in this case, a highly controversial election that hasn’t even taken place yet!) in a country still deeply divided and loosely stitched together?

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Mar 06, 2010 in BAGannouncements | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

(photo: Majid Saeedi/Getty Images. caption: U.S. Army soldiers lead a medical training exercise for Afghan National Police (ANP) officers March 2, 2010 in Herat, Afghanistan. The ANP force currently has about 94,000 members and is under a complete rehabilitation by U.S. and NATO military. )

It’s a shame Afghanistan has to compete so hard with other disasters like the Haiti and Chile earthquakes because the surge pictures get better every day.

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First NOLA, then Haiti, now Chile. What I want to know is….

(photo: Michele Asselin for The New York Times)

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Liberty, freedom, destruction, gender, sex, aggression (”The Scream”), petrol… could go on and on. The End Times must be nigh.

Mar 05, 2010 in Media Focus, War On Iraq/Islam | Permalink | Comments (16) | TrackBack (0)

Mar 05, 2010 in Culture Focus | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

(photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images. caption: US President Barack Obama waves to healthcare professionals after speaking about his final strategy for moving forward with health insurance reform in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, March 3, 2010.)

Mar 01, 2010 in Green Watch | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

1. Sorry — private club.

Mar 01, 2010 in Disaster Focus, Media Focus | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

While the media sphere is giving inordinate attention to the triumphant images of US troops clearing out Marjah in Helmand Province, the news wires also document a pounding theTaliban delivered to tourist hotels in Kabul. When you net it out, the surge starts to look more like whack-a-mole.

(photo: Neal Young, Commonwealth of Australia via National Geographic)

Nina Berman, Contributor ninaberman.com
Nina at The BAG

Like that leftover crust of bread, this photo was shot following yesterday’s White House speech in which Obama signaled the end of deliberations over health care reform.

Mar 02, 2010 in War On Iraq/Afghanistan | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Mar 01, 2010 Cracking Up

It’s curious to see where the public goes in documenting the massive earthquake in Chile — in contrast to the newswire’s narrow preoccupation with damage, looting, security, damage, security and damage. A friend of BNN, Peter Hollander, writes of this reader-contributed photo to the NYT:

Mar 02, 2010 From the Land of the Poppies

Feb 27, 2010 Where Scott Brown is Coming From…

What does the cropping say about Dubya? Is Newsweek saying he’s off the hook? That he gets to put it behind him now?

Mar 03, 2010 in President Obama | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Mar 03, 2010 Heath Care: The End End End Game

(photo: Harry Hamburg/AP. caption: Tighe Barry, in pink, lines up with others for a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing on the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" on gays in the military on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 3, 2010.)

Reader photos from Chile/NYT

Continue reading “Reuters Calling People Crooks Over … Toilet Paper??” »

NYT profile here .

By the way, notice how the moderate is framed as mostly monochrome in spite of GOP red all around. This GQ-style cover also makes me wonder how much Brown can successfully repel right wing pressure and carve out a more middle-ground, independent role just by virtue of his sex appeal.

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Lucaites at The BAG

Continue reading “Sen. Bunning’s Three Strikes: Party of “No,” Privilege and Mean” »

Take That, Jim Bunning!

As a program note, I’m going to be in Texas through the weekend attending the Obama Phenomena conference at Texas A&M. Responding to a paper by BagNewsSalon moderator Cara Finnegan on how Team Obama uses White House art in its visual communications, I’ll be speaking on how the White House makes strategic political use of its Flickr stream.

Mar 03, 2010 in President Obama, The Great Recession | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

I give up. From the bedtime prayers of the Circulation Manager? From an editor yet to be convinced the Tea Party is a movement?

BAGnewsNotes Dedicated to visual politics, the analysis of news images, and the support of unfiltered photojournalism Mar 06, 2010

Note: I’m delivering a paper today at the Obama Phenomena conference at Texas A&M and will be back tomorrow. In the meantime, I hope you’ll contribute your thoughts to the posts below.

Continue reading “Afghanistan: Passing Snapshot of a Down and Dirty War” »

Don’t Ask

(photo: Claudia Retamal via NYT. Talca, Chile)

Feb 27, 2010 in Campaign ‘10 | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)

Reuters Calling People Crooks Over … Toilet Paper??

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Mar 05, 2010 Victory at Last?

An otherwise routine looking photo? Eager to take advantage of Jim Bunning and his GOP stonewall on extension of unemployment benefits, the White House had this picture up on their Flickr site yesterday within hours of the legislation being passed. Perhaps looking to create a more compassionate feel, it shows Obama signing the bill in the intimate setting of his private office in the White House residence. (Adding to the “at home” feel, also notice the stuff on the edge, the table top not too cluttered, not too clear — in contrast to most photos of Bush at a completely clean surface.)

(photo: still looking)

Mar 02, 2010 in Right-Wing Focus | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBack (0)