The Citizen, 2004-12-16, Page 5*A Bonnie
Gropp
The short of it
THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2004. PAGE 5.
Other Views
The camera doesn't lie,sometimes
Wn
e can now manipulate images to such
an extraordinary degree that there is
o lie that you cannot tell.
— Sir David Attenborough
There's a hoary old cliche that tells us a
picture is worth a thousand words.
I'd put the exchange rate at more like a
billion words. For some pictures, anyway.
I'm thinking of the photograph of George W.
Bush grinning cockily on the deck of an
American navy aircraft carrier, resplendent in
a macho, form-fitting jet pilot's flight suit,
posed under a banner that reads "MISSION
ACCOMPLISHED".
There was an image. It led prime time
television newscasts from Florida to Frobisher
Bay and ran on the front pages of newspapers
and magazines around the world.
There were just a few small problems with
the story the picture told. The mission (the war
in the Middle East) wasn't even close to
`accomplished' and the 'pilot' was an
impostor. The President of the United States
does not possess the expertise to taxi a modern
jet fighter out of a hangar much less get it up
in the air.
And yet the photo worked like a press
agent's wet dream. The world bought into it.
Bush — there's no denying it — looked good
in the uniform he didn't deserve to wear.
Proof of the photo's power showed up in a
poll of active-duty members of the U.S.
Military released just before the last election
which Bush won so handily. The poll revealed
that 69 per cent of soldiers polled trusted Bush
as commander-in-chief. Only 24 per cent
could muster any enthusiasm for John Kerry.
The irony drips. John Kerry was a genuine
war hero, thrice decorated and wounded in
action.
Bush not only ducked service in Vietnam, he
Ontario's Liberals have the leakiest
government ever — if it was a ship, it
would have sunk long ago.
The Liberals leak information to news
media before they officially announce it to
gain advantage almost as a daily habit, but
have slipped up on one and will be wary of
doing it again.
This may sound like something only insiders
in politics and the media would care about, but
it also rips off the public.
Previous governments leaked
announcements to varying degrees, but none
as much as Premier Dalton McGuinty's
Liberals.
It is difficult to recall their making any
major announcement without passing it on
surreptitiously to one or more Toronto
newspapers in advance.
The government normally hands over its
information the day before then the media that
receives it usually reports on it fairly
extensively, saying it will be announced, and
report on it again after it has been formally
announced, adding new twists.
Thus almost everything the 'Liberal
government does gets reported twice, which
makes it look twice as active as it is.
Papers pleased with having stories to
themselves often give those leaked to them
more prominence than they deserve. -
Reporters sometimes write stories based on
information leaked to them kindly toward
government, merely repeating what it says
withoUt mentioning any shortcomings.
One reason is they have new information
and little space for commentary. A few try to
repay those who leak and encourage them to
keep leaks flowing.
'Leaks often can be identified because
failed to show up for duty with the Air
National Guard in Texas. And yet one
carefully staged photo op was so powerful it
fooled even military personnel who should
have known better.
Photographic images are undeniably
powerful, but they can be treacherous as well.
Remember George Dukakis?
He was putting up a decent run for the White
House back in 1988 until he made the mistake
of letting himself be photographed popping
out of the hatch of an army tank. He was
wearing a tank helmet with the earflaps askew
and he looked like Snoopy perched on his
ersatz Sopwith Camel. Americans started to
laugh and they didn't stop until Bush the Elder
was elected in a landslide.
Politicians on this side of the border know
too, that a political campaign can turn on the
strength of an eight-by-10 glossy or two. We
could ask Robert Stanfield, if he was still
around.
.In 1974 Stanfield was campaigning against
Pierre Trudeau for the prime minister's office.
His plane touched down at North Bay, Ontario
and Stanfield, feeling the urge to stretch,
started a game of catch football with some of
his entourage. A Canadian Press photographer
squeezed off 36 shots of the impromptu
exercise showing Stanfield catching and
throwing the football with practised ease.
For the most part. Stanfield did fumble once
reporters know the information is from the
government, the horse's mouth, and write
confidently that a program "will be announced
today" rather than "is expected."
The Liberals' leaks are so common reporters
often feel little need to attend their news
conferences, because almost all they need to
know is already in a newspaper.
The Liberals even leaked much of their
budget, which is supposed to be kept more
closely guarded than the recipe for Kentucky
Fried Chicken.
Newspaper readers knew in advance the
Liberals would increase taxes and run a
deficit, notwithstanding promises to avoid
both. The Liberals thought knowing would
take away some of the sting when they, came.
But the Liberals have recently discovered
dangers in leaking. They gave two newspapers
information that led them to report the
government would unveil the next day, a plan
to provide full-day kindergarten and child care
in schools for all four and five-year-olds.
This would be achieved by children
attending junior and senior kindergarten for
half a day, as now, and the rest of it attending
a child care centre set up in the same school.
It would be a first step to providing a public
system of early-childhood education for all
pre-schoolers from two and a half years up.
or twice — as anyone might. The photographer
shipped the raw film off to Toronto for
processing. Later, he got a call saying one of
his photos would be running on the front page
of The Globe and Mail the next day.
The photographer told Stanfield "You owe
me a beer. I got you on the front page of The
Globe."
But it didn't work out that way. The editors
in Toronto ignored all the photos that made
Stanfield look good and chose a 'fumble' shot.
An excruciatingly bad fumble shot. Stanfield's
horn-rim glasses were askew and he had a
grimace on his face that looked like he'd been
kicked in the gonads. His knees were
knocked together; his bony fingers clutching
ineffectively at the ball squirting out of his
grasp. Stanfield looked like Ichabod Crane.
Another scribe on the tour took one look at
the front page and said: "Trudeau just won the
election."
And he was right.
Maybe it was the photo that did Stanfield in.
Or perhaps it's just that Canadians don't buy
into phony heroism as readily as Americans.
Stockwell Day's political career began
going south the day he decided, as leader of
the Canadian Alliance, to dazzle a press
conference by swooshing up on a jet ski,
dressed in a skintight wet suit.
Sort of an aquanaut version of Dubya on the
aircraft carrier.
Except it didn't work. The press howled
until they cried and the Canadian general
public followed their lead. Day didn't look
like a superhero. He looked like a doofus.
Too often a slick photographer can sell us a
bill of goods. But sometimes, praise be, the
camera doesn't lie.
One paper called it a "grand plan."
But school board administrators and
elementary teachers read the leak and warned
while some schools in areas where enrolment
has declined have space available, many in
other areas are struggling to accommodate
growing enrolments and have no space, and
phasing in and large-scale funding will be
required.
The government watered down its
announcement by declaring it will make more
middle-income families eligible for child care
subsidies.
It added almost as an afterthought it will
stage pilot projects in three communities to
test its long-term vision of offering a full day
of learning and child care to children aged
two-and-half-years and up within the next 10
to 15 years.
Progressive Conservative education critic
Frank Klees said it was another example of the
Liberals trying to obtain double publicity by
leaking an announcement, but in this case it
provoked an outcry and they backed off.
Klees said the Liberals "sucked in" the
media and New Democrat Andrea Horwath
said the papers were "kind of abused." This
should make the Liberals more cautious in
dol,ng out leaks and the media in accepting
them.
Final Thought
Those who bring sunshine into the lives of
oZfters, cannot keep it from themselves.
— Sir James M. Barrie
Another senseless act
There aren't a lot of people who have
heard the name `Dimebag' Darrell
Abbott.
A guitarist, Abbott certainly wasn't what
anyone would call mainstream. He first gained
recognition as a member of the 'thrash rock'
group Pantera. He was, however, admired by
his peers for his talent, his innovation and his
passion.
A 'couple of weeks ago, my son, who is
studying music in Toronto, had the pleasure of
sitting and talking with Dimebag during a
concert visit by his new band to that city.
One week to the day later, Abbott was
gunned down at a show in Ohio. During
Damageplan's first song, a man, screaming
something apparently about Pantera's demise,
launched himself onto the stage and fired
several bullets into the guitarist, point blank,
before turning the gun on the crowd. Three
other innocent people, a bouncer who tried to
pull the gunman off, and two fans, also died
that day.
My son is Obviously hurting. He had long
respected Abbott's ability. And, in. the brief
time he had been privileged to spend in his
company, had made one of those rare
connections. He had found not just a kindred
spirit who shared his love of music, but
recognized Abbott to be the kind of 'person
worth idolizing. He was quite simply, a really
nice guy.
It takes awhile to get past the many feelings
that accompany a tragedy like this. There is
sadness at such a senseless loss. There is
frustration that no action can make it better.
There is fear and vulnerability over the reality
of fate's capricious nature.
And there is anger. Things like this
shouldn't happen. How did this man enter a
venue full of people, get up on stage and kill
people with a gun?
'At the Toronto concert, following his
conversation with Abbott, my son was
accompanied from the musician's trailer into
the building by the tour manager. Yet, despite
that presence he was searched. It would seem
that there were no metal detectors or searches
done at the Ohio show, a fact made even more
puzzling by the reality of America's lax gun
control.
As well, it's absolutely mind boggling, with
all of the chatter south of the border regarding
their tight security, that any place a crowd is
gathering would not be subject to rigid
precautions.
Perhaps there is still enough idealism left in
this world that many can't wrap themselves
around the notion that nowhere is safe. People
shouldn't be hurt when they are out to be
entertained, but it happens, whether it's from
a stampede of overzealous fans, or a special
effect gone wrong, such as the Rhode Island
nightclub inferno that claimed 96 lives last
year.
Children shouldn't be killed while attending
school. And employees shouldn't lose their
lives at the hand of a disgruntled co-worker,
either. This world, even in our own small
corner, is a lot scarier place than it used to be.
We can't always protect ourselves or be
protected.
But rock concerts in particular have gained
a reputation as a volatile playground so a clear
system of checks and balances should be in
place to protect the people on stage and off.
Some may chaffe, but most would be pleased
that every measure is being taken to ensure
safety. I'm sure those who loved Dimebag
Darrell and the three other victims wish it had
been so.
Leak scuttles Ontario's Liberals