May 2011 - Reading The Pictures

Business Focus Photo May 31, 2011

Meghan's Pad and the Double Dip

Highlighting Meghan McCain as a "real estate showoff" seems remarkably ironic given today's demoralizing housing news.

Campaign '12 Photo May 30, 2011

What if the Media Stopped Sensationalizing Sarah Palin?

What if the media simply showed Team Palin as flimflam as they really are?

Photo

Memorial Day 2011

I was drawn to this Memorial Day photo for its painful innocence.

Disaster Focus Photo May 29, 2011

Obama Surveys Storm Damage, Oh Glory

Obama tours the tornado devastation in Missouri. (God bless America.)

International Focus Photo May 28, 2011

Fukushima Goo: The Latest From TEPCO

The latest video from TEPCO chronicles the green goo counter-offensive.

Business Focus Photo

Zany Zuckerberg Taking Over the World

Zuckerberg might look like the impish pubescent boy-genius, but it's the world's elite politicians that look so pandering and insignificant in his presence.

Scandal Focus Photo May 27, 2011

G-8 Update: More on Sex, Power and Men in High Places

Talking about powerful political leaders with sex issues...

Women and Gender Focus Photo May 26, 2011

G-8 Optics: After Strauss-Kahn’s Crash-and-Burn, Sarkozy Making Hay Off Trophy Wife’s Baby Bump?

With Strauss-Kahn’s presidential aspirations now extinguished, Sarkozy still enjoys showcasing his trophy wife, but with a new twist -- familial bliss.

International Focus Photo

Visual Disconnect of the Week: Bibi's Rock and Roll

Something disarming about women hoisting rocks.

Karrin Anderson Photo May 25, 2011

History and Herstory: Pie Town Pics Revisited

Critics of feminism have long suspected that the ultimate goal of the movement is to get rid of men. Their fears seem to be confirmed by artist Debbie Grossman’s “reimaging” of Russell Lee’s iconic photographic series portraying families in the rural New Mexican community of “Pie Town. Feminism, however,...

Spin Focus Photo

Paul Ryan "Listening" and the Point of the Flag

With last night's blue bellweather win in NY-26, these photos --easily missed in late April -- assert and start to clarify the dynamic between the Republican agenda and the public, particularly seniors.

Faith Focus Photo May 24, 2011

End of the World (Ca-Ching!)

That's Harold communing with his real deity.

Culture Focus Photo

Attack on the Heartland

I'm not sure if this is a media phenomenon, a cultural reflex, or both, but why does the coverage of U.S. catastrophes seems to automatically and fundamentally activate a patriotic response, as if the disaster is somehow an attack on the country?

President Obama Photo May 23, 2011

Your Turn: The Money-gall Shot

Obama's roots and a Guiness besides.

Salon Archive Photo

BagNews Salon: The Fall of Bin Laden

At this BagNews Salon, an expert panel will analyze images of one of the most anticipated moments in American international politics over the past decade, the killing of Osama bin Laden. What was shown, and what does it reveal about the political biases and long building expectations for this...

International Focus Photo

Parting Shot From Israel Week

With pics like this on the wire coming away from his encounter with the Israel lobby, I'm sure the White House is now feeling better about the Netanyahu dust-up.

Business Focus Photo May 22, 2011

Budweiser "Coming Home" Ad: Gay? Straight? Who Cares, Let’s Drink to the War!

I couldn't get past the exploitation of the uniform, the beer company tapping the sacred glow around the troops while so many of America's finest are drowning their PTSD in the brew.

Culture Focus Photo May 21, 2011

Two Sex-Scandals: Focusing in on the Problem

While the impetus behind these stories is supposedly exposing the men that "done them wrong," it's often the women who suffer most from the media backlash.