Newspaper Refuses to Run White House Photos in Protest of Photojournalist Access
The News Tribune, a daily newspaper out of Tacoma, WA declared Monday it would no longer run official White House press photos, in protest of what it calls the Obama administration’s unprecedented restriction of access to photojournalists.
Last week, members of the White House Correspondents Association sent a letter to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney objecting to multiple “closed door” events, which it alleged limited independent views “as surely as if they were placing a hand over a journalist’s camera lens.”
The events were, however, photographed by official White House photographer Peter Souza. “The administration declares these news events private, but then posts the ‘official’ pictures on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and hands them out for use by the media,” wrote Karen Peterson, The News Tribune’s executive editor. “Given no alternative, many of us have published them.”
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No more, Peterson wrote Monday:
The TNT has run 10 photos taken by White House photographer Pete Souza since Obama took office. Two were taken in 2009 of the Obamas’ new puppy, Bo, but the others were of news events.
From now on, we won’t publish White House handout photos of events that should have been open to news photographers, even if that means going without a photo. As the protest letter said, closing the door to the press gets in the way of “the public’s ability to independently monitor and see what its government is doing.”
National Journal editorial director Ron Fournier, who wrote a scathing piece about the photojournalists last week, quickly commended Peterson:
[h/t The News Tribune]
[Image via—wait for it—the White House]
