Vogue, al-Assad, Nachtwey

the Atlantic:

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/01/the-only-remaining-online-copy-of-vogues-asma-al-assad-profile/250753/

‎"Vogue’s editors defended the controversial article as “a way of opening a window into this world a little bit,” conceding only that Assad’s Syria is “not as secular as we might like.” A senior editor responsible for the story told me the magazine stood by it. A few weeks later, the article and all references to it were removed from Vogue’s website without explanation. In August, The Hill reported that U.S. lobbying firm Brown Lloyd James had been paid $5,000 per month by the Syrian government to arrange for and manage the Vogue article."

Not terribly surprised at this, I know a bunch of Public Relations people and publicists who have boasted when a bit drunk that they have created stories and actually fed their own copy to media outlets (sometimes quite respectable ones) and had their own copy run word for word under somebody elses byline. Disgusting, really. Would have been better if
Vogue had admitted that Syria’s government was a “little more tyrannical and psychotic than we’d prefer, but we let somebody place the story anyway”.

It does have the makings of a joke, though; a Vogue editor, a publicist, a dictator’s wife and a photojournalist go into a bar and ……

http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/?p=8512

The article with a lot of comments.

I hate when some mass media do that. One media hurt all the other media in some way. Trust is something difficult to maintain. This attitude is stupid like shoot on our own feet. I hate the colateral damage for all the other media. The most clear thing would be recon the mistake. All of us do mistakes. Why don’t accept this? I can not understand the politics of media since I work for them. I suppose this doble, triple, etc, faces make the money to support this kind of communication. Publicity and money have to come from some side. I am sure some people out there can find more examples inside the national media and politics. Last week I did a story that run in a local newspaper of my country. The photos were edited and ran on the paper as a simple propaganda for some politic wing. If I can see that, other people can see that. What kind of media are we helping build. What can we do? I am a staff photographer of a newspaper and sometimes I feel like a prostitute. Yes, I have no pleasure but I need the money. We live difficult times. But how set limits when one had signed the contract to work for someone? I can’t be a romantic resigning passing 44 years old. Freelance work don’t exist in latin america. At less in some more healthy countries you can have this option.

It is terrible that people abuse trust, Hernan, but don’t worry about being a romantic at 44. In some ways being romantic only means having ideals, even if they are too pure for the world we live in. That leads to disappointment, but a man with no ideals has nothing, is worth nothing, has nothing to fight for, and no one will fight for him, either. If something like this makes you feel defeated, that’s bad, but don’t forget, there are also victories.

And don’t think that even those of us who freelance in healthy countries aren’t faced with compromising our ethics and ideals. Things are very competitive here as well, and while I’d rather shoot a wedding (and in general, I hate weddings)than knowingly do a story that I felt was being used for bad purposes, I’m not sure I always know what a client or newspaper has on it’s agenda, regardless of what I personally believe. I just try to do right, and I hope it works in the long run. Anyhow, not sure why I’m even saying this, photojournalists are the biggest group of sour, grouchy, jaded, angry, sarcastic idealistic romantics I’ve ever seen.