LA Times' apology for altered war photo
THIS:
Is really a composite of THESE:
Posted on 06/12/2003 3:49:43 AM PDT by rabidralph
NEW YORK—Sarah Harbutt, Newsweek’s director of photography for the last three years, has been forced out of the magazine, according to sources within the magazine.
After news leaked out last Friday that Harbutt was leaving, Newsweek’s public relations department went into spin control. On Monday spokesperson Ken Weine refused to comment on what he called an "employee matter," although he insisted that Harbutt remained "a valued part of the Newsweek team." On Wednesday, Weine changed course, saying Harbutt has "resigned to pursue a book." Calls to Harbutt were not returned.
Several of Newsweek’s contributors believe Harbutt was pushed out, citing management’s unhappiness with photo coverage from the war in Iraq and an out-of-control photo budget. Many think Newsweek’s bitter rival Time had better photojournalism during the war, having scored stand-out work from Benjamin Lowy, Yuri Kozyrev and James Nachtwey. Time is also producing a book based on its contributors’ photographs. By comparison, Newsweek only had one embedded contract photographer, Ron Haviv, and instead relied heavily on unilateral coverage.
Time also showed a bigger determination to give space to photography during the war, which is a reflection of Time managing editor Jim Kelly’s philosophy. Each week during the war, Time devoted space at the front of the book for ten double-truck spreads, giving readers a visceral picture of the war before getting to a single story.
"I thought what Time did during the Iraq war was phenomenal," says former Newsweek director of photographer Jimmy Colton, now picture editor at Time Inc.’s Sports Illustrated. "That was an amazing piece of photojournalism, and journalism, on the part of a word guy [Kelly]. I didn’t see ten [picture] spreads in Newsweek or US News & World Report."
Hamstrung by a smaller budget, Newsweek forces its photo department to take more risks than its larger rival. Some say the expectations put on Harbutt were unrealistic given the resources allotted. Time spent nearly $1 million on photography during the war, a figure Newsweek couldn’t even come close to.
"It’s very expensive to cover a war," says ZUMA Press president Scott McKiernan. "The rules get thrown out the window when big news happens and you have to spend whatever [it takes]."
Charlie Borst, who held the position before Harbutt, says the job is a pressure-cooker situation where you’re expected to be on budget no matter what. "It's a very high-profile, high-wire kind of act," says Borst, who admits that coming in over-budget was one of the reasons for his dismissal. "It's not for nothing that their top editors are called Wallendas, because if they slip, there's no safety net under them."
Although it’s unclear what exactly led to Harbutt’s departure, several sources say an embarrassing incident involving Newsweek contract photographer Luc Delahaye may have tipped the scales against Harbutt. Rather than shoot with a digital camera and trasmit pictures on a daily basis like most photographers during the war, Delahaye chose to travel with a panoramic film camera. Early on in the war, Delahaye, along with Newsweek reporter Scott Johnson and two other unembedded photographers, fell into an Iraqi ambush on the way to Baghdad and were nearly killed. One photographer involved in the ambush says Delahaye escaped with his camera but had to ditch his rented SUV, a hit that cost the magazine roughly $30,000. After running for their lives, the journalists were rescued by the American military. They then had to wait out a sandstorm before being transported back to Kuwait. Though Delahaye eventually got back into Iraq, by the time his film arrived at Newsweek's New York office, the pictures were dated and therefore useless to the weekly magazine.
Although Harbutt is well-respected throughout the industry, photographers and photo editors at Newsweek say she was a difficult person to work for. In an interview with The Digital Journalist in 2001, Harbutt made what some feel was a derisive comment about Newsweek’s long-term employees, comparing what they did to "shoveling coal." Photographers say Harbutt preferred younger talent, preferably European, and preferably employees she could mold, which alienated the older staffers.
"While they had been producing top quality photography and working with top quality photographers for several years and won awards prior to her arrival, suddenly, the employees and their trusted photographers were no longer good enough for the Harbutt paradigm," one photographer says.
Harbutt’s is the latest departure from a position that has seen plenty of change over the years. Borst only lasted a year and a half. Before Borst, Colton occupied the top spot from 1992 to 1998. Harbutt has also been under pressure to do her job with a shrinking staff. Last year, one-third of the photo department was eliminated in a round of budget cutting.
LA Times' apology for altered war photo
THIS:
Is really a composite of THESE:
but...but...but...
Newsweek and Time are left-leaning liberal er, Progressive, that is, publications.
Far-out left-leaning liberals er Progressives aren't subject to the same criticisms as the rest of us.
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