Top AP photographer says Obama photos are nothing more than 'staged propaganda'

Sunday, November 10, 2013 by: J. D. Heyes
Tags: Associated Press, Obama photos, staged propaganda

(NaturalNews) You most likely suspected it before, but a top Associated Press photographer has officially confirmed it: Obama stages his appearances, and his photo ops are little more than propaganda.

As reported by The Daily Caller:

Editors of The Associated Press condemned the White House's refusal to give photojournalists real access to President Obama, who prefers to circulate press release-style pictures taken by his own paid photographers.

These official photographs are little more than propaganda, according to AP director of photography Santiago Lyon.

The news organization says its reporters and photogs have only been allowed to take pictures of Obama on two occasions, and both during his first term. And the AP says it has never been allowed to photograph the president with his staff.

Papers urged to stop using stock hand-out photos from Obama

"The AP generally receives access when foreign leaders are visiting, but at other times the White House relies on its own photographers to take pictures and distribute them to the press," The Daily Caller reported.

Well, aren't all presidential administrations adamant about being able to control the narrative of the Oval Office? No - nothing like the current regime. In fact, previous White Houses have been far less strict about photographs. All of which puts the lie to another Obama fabrication, that he would strive to run "the most transparent administration" in history.

Lyon made his remarks before the AP Media Editors national conference in Indianapolis earlier this month. His concerns were echoed by AP executive editor Kathleen Carroll.

"This works because newspapers use these handout photos," she told the conference, according to attendee Jack Lail, digital editor of the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Carroll told newspaper editors in attendance that they should stop using the White House's preferred photos in their stories.

More from The Daily Caller:

This is not the first time the AP has insinuated that Obama's photo policy is bad for modern journalism. Editors at the country's largest wire service began complaining about Obama's autocratic media strategy during his first campaign for the presidency in 2008.

They even sent a letter to the Obama campaign that said, "There are many ways in a campaign to control your message and conduct private meetings that do not involve deceiving the press corps."

Which makes you wonder why the mainstream media protects and defends a president who has little-to-no regard for them.

Nevertheless, the AP's displeasure may just be the first signs of some pushback against perhaps the most authoritarian, maniacal administration in U.S. history. For instance, earlier this year, the AP renewed its criticisms of the White House in a piece entitled, "Controlling the Narrative While Limiting Media Access."

It said, in part:

"[The Obama White House] is limiting press access in ways that past administrations wouldn't have dared, and the president is answering to the public in more controlled settings than his predecessors. It's raising new questions about what's lost when the White House tries to make an end run around the media, functioning, in effect, as its own news agency."

Barring reporters is a double-edged sword for the elitist Obama

In the article, Mike McCurry, press secretary to former President Bill Clinton, was quoted as saying that control freak Obama exerts more power over his narrative - and the media in general - far and away above the level exerted by previous presidents.

"What gets lost are those revealing moments when the president's held accountable by the representatives of the public who are there in the form of the media," said McCurry.

But his controlling nature could also be backfiring. As noted by The Daily Caller:

The history of White House photography suggests barring photographers in this way may even limit Obama's propaganda power. Photojournalists snapped many of the best-remembered Oval Office photos, including the picture of a backlit President John F. Kennedy with his head bowed, which was shot by New York Times photographer George Tames. That photo, dubbed "The Loneliest Job In the World," went on to become an icon of the Cuban Missile Crisis, although it was snapped several months before the crisis and simply showed the president reading a newspaper while standing, to relieve his back pain. During the actual missile crisis, JFK reportedly left the Oval Office to join fabled stripper Blaze Starr in the Lincoln Bedroom for what Starr called a "very short" encounter.

Don't expect the media's general sycophantic attitude towards Obama to radically change anytime soon, but the more he attempts to shut them out and marginalize them, the more likely it is for editors and reporters to eventually turn hostile.

Sources:

http://dailycaller.com

http://www.oregonlive.com

http://neoneocon.com