What has become of journalistic integrity? As if it wasn’t already on its way to a slow death, its demise has been shoved forward a few steps thanks to the Atlantic and photographer Jill Greenberg.
Ms. Greenberg, a professional, award-winning photographer, was hired by the Atlantic to do a photo shoot of John McCain, for an article written by Jeffrey Goldberg.
She delivered the image the magazine asked for — shot that makes the Republican presidential nominee look heroic … [b]ut she didn’t bother to do much retouching on her McCain images. “I left his eyes red and his skin looking bad,” she says.
Greenberg then asked McCain to take another photo. This time she purposely set up the shoot so that the photo would be taken in harsh light and at a bad angle, making McCain look monstrous and menacing.
The Atlantic did not use that shot for their cover, but they did use the one that Greenberg did not touch up at all. And while that may not be disingenuous in and of itself, the fact that she probably would have touched up the photo if she did not have a visceral hatred for the presidential candidate is. In other words, Greenberg editorialized the article by way of her photography.
That’s not a bad thing, you say. The Atlantic is a magazine. They are not beholden to any party, any candidate, any ideals. What they do is editorialize. This is the magazine that employs Andrew Sullivan. But there is one thing wrong with this particular case of wearing your politics on your media sleeve; this was not Greenberg’s article. She chose to use a very unflattering image as a way to insert her opinion into the mix and editorialize an article that was written by someone else. That someone else — Jeffrey Goldberg — is not happy with Greenberg’s actions:
Like others at the Atlantic, I was appalled to read about the actions of Jill Greenberg, the freelance photographer who took the cover portrait that illustrates my article about John McCain… Suffice it to say that her “art” is juvenile, and on occasion repulsive. This is not the issue, of course; the issue is that she betrayed this magazine, and disgraced her profession.
The Atlantic, scrambling to recover from the backlash, is sending out this PR snippet to anyone who inquires about the controversy:
We stand by the respectful image of John McCain that we used on our cover, and we expect to be judged by it. We were not aware of the manipulated and dishonest images Jill Greenberg had taken until this past Friday.
When we contract with photographers for portraits, we don’t vet them for their politics — instead, we assess their professional track records. Based on the portraits she had done of politicians like Arnold Schwarzenegger and her work for publications like Time, Wired, and Portfolio, we expected Jill Greenberg, like the other photographers we work with, to behave professionally.
Jill Greenberg has obviously not done that. She has, in fact, disgraced herself, and we are appalled by the manipulated images she has created for her Web site of John McCain.
Too bad Jill Greenberg has a history of behaving unprofessionally.
In 2006, she was taken to task for her photography exhibit called End Times, in which she manipulated very young children into crying in order to use those kids to portray her own views on the state of world politics. She then went on to launch an attack against a photographer who disagreed with her methods.
Given Greenberg’s reaction to the current controversy (“Some of my artwork has been pretty anti-Bush, so maybe it was somewhat irresponsible for [the Atlantic] to hire me.”), it’s obvious she is pretty laid back when it comes to integrity. Said Greenberg:
The pictures speak for themselves. I took the opportunity to create an image which shows my feelings about the Republican administration and possible continuation of the policies of the Bush/Cheney White House.
The point Ms. Greenberg is missing when she brags about her manipulation of the Atlantic and Goldberg is that this was not her venue; she was hired to take photos to go along with someone else’s words. By inserting her politics into those photos, she eradicated whatever shred of professionalism she had left and made the magazine that paid her and the author of the article look as if they agreed with her politics. Whether or not they do agree with those feelings is a moot point; it wasn’t her job to insert her views into the mix.
What she does on her own website — fittingly called The Manipulator — is her own business. While most of us were disgusted by the doctored photos of McCain she had on the front page as recently as last night (they seem to be gone now, but you can see them here), it’s her right to voice her opinion through her “art” in her own venue.
It’s the deception and the outright boasting of that deception, and the fact that she tried to push her own opinions onto someone else’s page that turns her actions into a slap in the face to everyone involved — the Atlantic, McCain, Goldberg, the readers of the magazine, and political journalism as a whole. She also does a great disservice to her chosen profession, in that she purposely delivered a final shoot that was admittedly not up to standard simply because she doesn’t like her subject.
While Greenberg — a Canadian — claims to be championing the cause of those who hate Bush’s politics, she is engaging in something for which she chastises the very people she is against.
A note to Ms. Greenberg: if you have that much distaste for the subject you are shooting, perhaps you should show a little integrity or class and turn down the job. Given your past record, one has to suppose that’s too much to ask.
At the very least, an apology to Jeffrey Goldberg is in order.
Update: The Atlantic has offered an apology to John McCain and is refusing to pay Greenberg for her photo shoot.
Editor James Bennet said Greenberg behaved improperly and will not be paid for the session. He said the magazine is also considering a lawsuit.
“She has violated the terms of our agreement with her, of our contract with her so we’re taking steps. So we’re looking into what steps we can see to do something about that,” Bennet told FOX News, adding that he is “already drafting a letter of apology” to McCain.
“I mean this photographer went in there under our auspices to take a cover shot for us … but while she was there she behaved in an incredibly underhanded and unprofessional way,” he said.
By bragging about how underhanded, dishonest and childlish she behaved in regards to the shoot, Jill Greenberg brought on herself everything she deserves, including but not limited to some very bad publicity. This is not the first time she gave professional photographers a bad name; hopefully it is the last.
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