Notes Archives
6,420 Posts
President Obama Photo September 12, 2014

As Obama *Takes Stand* Against ISIS, What Ever Happened to Oval Office Address?

After President Obama delivered yet another one of his weird, standing at a podium televised speeches last night, several people were wondering whatever happened to the classic Oval Office Address. So far as I can tell, the story goes something like this....

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Fashion Focus Photo September 11, 2014

Fashion Week from an Untrained Eye: Shots of Models Eating

The most engaging view of culture and politics right now might be on or around the runway

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Karrin Anderson Photo September 10, 2014

The Focus on Janay Rice: The Pictures are Powerful, but Why are They Necessary?

Visuals that train the focus on Janay Rice rather than her husband play into the narrative that Ray Rice and the Ravens worked hard to construct—this is a marital problem rather than a criminal offense.

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International Focus Photo September 8, 2014

What's Up With Those Middle East Edition Businessweek Covers?

I don't know, looking at these covers they seem unusually inflamed.

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How the Pictures are Killing Us: The Dynamics of the Sotloff and Foley ISIS Videos

If the Foley and Sotloff videos felt like a piercing blow, if just from the bloodless screen shots, what is it that so pierced us?

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Culture Focus Photo September 6, 2014

America from the Outside: Nixon's Prop Wash by Jean-Pierre Laffont … and Annie Leibovitz

What caught my eye was this version of Nixon's final departure from the White House. Of course, it couldn't be more different then that iconic scene hardwired into the America consciousness.

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Militarism Focus Photo September 4, 2014

Compassionate Conservatism: Damon Winter’s New Photos from Gitmo for The NY Times

The new wrinkle is on how the prisoners are allowed more contact with each other as long as they demonstrate good behavior.

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Culture Focus Photo September 3, 2014

On that Photo of the Police Dog Funeral

The image made me pause for a moment and consider how quick we are to draw comparisons, to generalize and to judge.

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Culture Focus Photo September 2, 2014

When Critical Issues Make For "Bottom-Tier" Visual Stories: Take Education

Save historical exceptions on the scale of Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957, it is difficult to imagine developments in education policy as visually spectacular events.

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Business Focus Photo August 31, 2014

On the NYT Mag "Abortion by Mail" Cover

The significance of the new NYT Mag cover (if you read the article) is to simultaneously describe, announce and usher in the next incarnation, and a still greater degree of discretion and control for women over their reproductive destiny.

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Fashion Focus Photo August 28, 2014

Obama Fluff, Perfectly Suited

Actually, Obama's summery change up was nothing short of a rescue.

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Media Focus Photo August 27, 2014

Readjusting our Eyes After the Bloody Summer We've Had

As we stagger toward the merciful end of this cataclysmic summer, what's instructive is context, or how much the eye sees what its been conditioned to see.

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Ferguson MO Photo August 26, 2014

What That Picture From Michael Brown's Funeral Does That Few Photos Ever Do

If we're talking about the tone of a news photo, which we often do, we're either addressing its visual gradations or it's emotional quality, not something audible.

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Visual Practices & Ethics Photo August 25, 2014

On Publishing Photos of a Public Execution by Hamas Fighters: Still More Ethical Questions

As we’ve been asking in instance after instance over many months now, where is the line between news and propaganda? between reporting and enabling? between editorial responsibility and corporate self-interest when it comes to publishing such material?

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Ferguson MO Photo August 24, 2014

Ferguson: White Fantasies

I was completely captivated by this white male cop helping the white female cop strap on her helmet, the trunk and the doors of the patrol car protecting "the couple" like a dressing room.

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Ferguson MO Photo August 23, 2014

Why I like the Businessweek Scott Olson Ferguson Cover

Perhaps it’s because of how it breaks from the unrelenting theme of the white police force versus the young black male.

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Ferguson MO Photo August 21, 2014

The Video of the Killing of Kajieme Powell and the Killing of Michael Brown

Don't let people label this a freak coincidence considering how tweaked St. Louis police must be over the anger in the streets in Ferguson.

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Iraq and Afghanistan War Photo August 20, 2014

Enabling ISIS, the VICE Videos and the Execution of AFP Videographer James Foley

Where are the ethics and the boundaries when the media engagement is so passive, even acquiescent, and the product, so indistinguishable from propaganda that the insurgents feel they can have their way with the exposure?

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