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Photo Flap
The White House Correspondents Association is gearing up to complain about the White House decision not to allow any news photographers to take pictures of President Bush giving his Wednesday night speech.
Routinely, a pool photographer - who shares the photo with all news organizations - and wire service photographers are allowed to cover presidential events in quarters too small to handle the usual throng of photographers.
Not so Wednesday night when Bush spoke from the White House Library. Administration officials said the room was too small.
That left newspapers with three choices: No photo, a photo shot by a White House photographer or a screen grab from television coverage of the speech. The latter, as shown above, generally provides a less-than-flattering image.
“This is the latest in an ever-growing series of events in which this White House is not allowing photographers” to cover, said C-SPAN’s Steve Scully, president of the White House Correspondents Association. “Clearly it’s unacceptable.”
The White House can expect letters of protest from the correspondents association and, perhaps, the White House News Photographers Association.
FYI, here’s an advisory the Associated Press sent to its members:
“Still photographers were not permitted access before, during or after President Bush’s televised address from the White House Library, Jan. 10, 2007. AP Photos NY201-205 are frame grabs from Associated Press Television and have been transmitted to all points.
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