Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Prejudice: Your Associated Press Hard At Work

Really though...
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5 comments:

purple_kangaroo said...

This is quite a stretch to accuse the AP of racism. The captions were written by the photographers, who obviously had more context to work from that a reader does just looking at the photos and captions (which, incidentally, are from two completely different news organizations in different countries).

One saw the guy coming out of the store laden with stuff he'd taken. But the photographer who took the picture of the couple who "found" the items said that people were outside the store picking up food etc. from the water as they floated out the door of a doorless store.

Snopes.com now has a post dealing with this issue. Follow the links and read around a bit-- http://www.snopes.com/photos/katrina/looters.asp

1:12 AM
Jay_MMS said...

purple_kangaroo,

Thank you for your comment.
I do not believe it is at all a stretch to accuse the AP of racism. The captions were of photographers, human beings with individual attitudes, whose photos are being used by AP.

While the news organizations are from different countries I have yet to hear an American reporter say any black individual has "found" something. On the other hand, I do have a French caption that has two white individuals who have "found" something.

We don't know whether or not the food was floating out of the door. That is speculation. Snopes himself says "it's possible that in one case the photographer actually saw his subject exiting an unattended grocery store with an armful of goods, while in the other case the photographer came upon his subjects with supplies in hand and could only make assumptions about how they obtained them.
And the Ghetty picture cannot be explained because of this:

But if he didn't witness an act of looting, how did Graythen determine where the items came from, or if they were "found"? "I wish I could tell you," Russel said. "I haven't been able to talk to Chris." (Chris was the Ghetty photographer)

It is equally possible the white couple depicted was "looting". Or maybe white reporters from western culture are typically racist. Or maybe it's just America targeting yet another colored person in a negative light.

I'm not going to argue with you about America's racist attitudes. They exist. American's see black people and they think "ooo scary". they see white people be it Jeffrey Dahmer, Timothy McVeigh or every wild party girl who shouldn't have been walking off with a stranger and no one ever expects they could be that way.

No one should give an inch on this subject. Even if Chris does happen to contact us and say "the food floated out the window" he is not incapable of lying. If he is telling the truth the racism in this country needs to be put to light anyway. Bush started a war on false pretenses and it ended up well. Let's do the same here.

(If the link to the article in this comment is not working please email me or post a comment on it. It is a link to an article on EBSCOhost. I am not sure if everyone has access to it.)

1:49 PM
Jay_MMS said...

By the way please excuse my typos.
Also when I say the war ended up well I mean it ended up "well".

2:37 PM
purple_kangaroo said...

Hi, Jay. I am certainly not arguing that racism doesn't exist. But I think it's unfair to make a judgement that Chris Gaythen and Dave Martin, the two photographers in question, are racist. That's a very ugly and personal accusation to make, and IMHO if you're going to single out one or two people and call them racist you'd better be extremely sure of your facts and have very good evidence for your claims. They are people, with feelings and reputations.

"Jack Stokes, AP's director of media relations, confirmed today that [photographer Dave] Martin says he witnessed the people in his images looting a grocery store. "He saw the person go into the shop and take the goods," Stokes said, "and that's why he wrote 'looting' in the caption." "

Chris Gaythen himself came out and made a statement about the situation in his photo. There's a link to it from the snopes page.

He said, "I don't belive how much **** I'm getting from this. First of all, I hope you excuse me, but I'm completely at the end of my rope. You have no Idea how stressful this whole disaster is . . . Please stop emailing me on this one.

I wrote the caption about the two people who 'found' the items. I believed in my opinion, that they did simply find them, and not 'looted' them in the definition of the word. The people were swimming in chest deep water, and there were other people in the water, both white and black. I looked for the best picture. there were a million items floating in the water - we were right near a grocery store that had 5+ feet of water in it. it had no doors. the water was moving, and the stuff was floating away. These people were not ducking into a store and busting down windows to get electronics. They picked up bread and cokes that were floating in the water. They would have floated away anyhow. I wouldn't have taken in, because I wouldn't eat anything that's been in that water. But I'm not homeless. (well, technically I am right now.)

I'm not trying to be politically correct. I'm don't care if you are white or black. I spent 4 hours on a boat in my parent's neighborhood shooting [pictures of], and rescuing people, both black and white, dog and cat. I am a journalist, and a human being - and I see all as such. If you don't belive me, you can look on Getty today and see the images I shot of real looting today, and you will see white and black people, and they were DEFINATELY looting. And I put that in the caption. "

The thing is, this isn't just a "big idea" general accusation. You are accusing, and hurting, real people--people who, in this case, are probably innocent.

3:34 PM
Jay_MMS said...

The thing is, this isn't just a "big idea" general accusation. You are accusing, and hurting, real people--people who, in this case, are probably innocent.

Actually it is both a "big idea" general accusation toward the media and a direct accusation toward any and all photographers who allow a caption with the word "looting" to exist alongside their photos inconsiderately, including Chris and Dave.

Chris Gaythen and Dave Martin are racist. The reason I make that ugly accusation is because it is an ugly truth. The reason I singled those two out is because America has trained them to be racist and they have expressed it. The United States is training all Americans to be prejudiced, including you I suspect, and for them to say anyone who is getting necessary items is a looter during these catastrophic times is immoral. It is not only immoral it is libel. Every single time a reporter says an innocent man or woman is looting they are creating another injustice.

Even you yourself cannot defend the man. You say he is "probably innocent". I'll tell you this, Gaythen is as definitely guilty as much as he is sure the people in his photos are definitely looting. If not for his continually passing judgement on others I would have had no say in what he does with his life.

There are people who siphon the news and seize every opportunity to condemn instead of looking for those in need. Photographers like these two are only feeding this mindset by attributing looting to every person they see. The President cries "zero tolerance" inferring he doesn't even know what is lawful. You cannot legally do anything to someone who is trying to survive, especially when you are not doing enough to help the thousands dying.

The media is doing a great disservice to the people of New Orleans. They cry out loot, the president cries out loot, the police cry out loot but no one seems to know what loot is. Tis not he who stood and looked but tis he who has endured.

7:24 PM

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