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December 17, 2010

Ice Capades

By Michael Shaw

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Call it a lovely example of the day-to-day machinations of the political infotainment complex.  Here’s the caption to this ABC publicity shot circulating on the newswire (and yep, I’ve pasted the AP spelling verbatim):

In this Dec. 16, 2010 photo provided by ABC, a cameraman tapes as Robin Roberts, far right, rides a snowmobile with Sarah Pailn (in orange helmet) and her daughter Piper during an interview with Sarah Palin for ABC’s Good Morning America at the Palin home in Wasilla, Alaska.

This photo of ABC in the act of collecting more Palin nature PR to foist on the American public demonstrates that, contrary to what you see here, Palin and ABC are actually piggybacking off each other.

And then, I’m sure you’ve seen who’s looking pretty foolish because that vista conjures up somebody else.

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(photo: (ABC/Matt Hage via AP)

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  • echo

    Won’t somebody rid us of this nuisance ?

    Add Boehner, McConnell and DeMint and the Koch brothers while you’re at it please.

  • http://www.actual-life.com Dave McLane

    Uhhh … while I enjoy reading this site, I think your somewhat behind the times, or rather the times have caught up with reality.

    I was born in 1935 and got my social security card in 1939 as my mother rented me out as child model, sometimes to my father (byline same name as mine) who spent roughly 20 years with Acme News Pictures and 20 years with the New York Daily News. He would often tell stories abut how a particular photo was shot and what you’re showing now, and in the one about Palin having her hair done, was perfectly normal,

    In addition, I worked part time as model, photographer’s assistant, and darkroom flunky to get through college in the ’60s and the same thing was happening. One of the simplest was the long line of clothes pins along whatever the model was wearing to make it look like it fit perfectly.

    About the only change is that a lot of what was done with clothes pins, hairspray and makeup is now done with photoshop which works better to poof up or pare down some body part.

    • Vvoter

      Sure, planned public photography has always involved an attention to optics, and a small (back then, big now?) infrastructure supports this attention.

      I don’t think BNN is taking issue with the optics infrastructure, though that’s a central feature of the Palin narrative.

      In paying close attention to Palin PR, BNN shines a light on how Palin’s public identity is almost entirely fabricated. While Americans are prepared to accept image construction in the modeling industry, we still like to think that authenticity – not purposeful, conspicuous stagecraft – drives our democratic institutions.

      It’s precisely because stagecraft traditionally belongs to modeling, entertainment, and make-believe that some of us squirm when the stagecraft of politicking is central to the definition of a politician’s public image. The political celebrity infrastructure now brashly gives us products that are fundamentally inauthentic. And this is a feature of our current political life that we should discourage.

  • Jim

    “Courage to stand. An American story.”

    Gawd, that makes me want to puke. I live and pay taxes in the USA. I’ve served in the military. I am ashamed to be a citizen of such a superficial hypocritical society.

  • black dog barking

    What a mug shot on the Pawlenty cover. Preening, chest out, looking past me into the indefinite distance because whatever is out there is way more interesting than what is directly in front of him — me. “Worship me!”, this picture shouts.

    Typographically, the author’s name is much more important than the title of his memoir. ‘Cause, you know, this guy is just plain *important*. Nice touch sneaking red, white, and blue into the visual.

    You’d have to pay me to read this tome. Pay me a lot.

    ( Note the use of “former”. ‘Pears to be they’re trying to raise “one-time” (as in “used to be”) to a virtue, think former half-term Governor of Alaska. )

  • Vvoter

    The Pawlenty cover is mushy conservative visual boilerplate pablum. It’s SO bad.

    Vying for Palin/Pawlenty?

  • http://www.actual-life.com Dave McLane

    @Vvoter: I agree that “While Americans are prepared to accept image construction in the modeling industry, we still like to think that authenticity – not purposeful, conspicuous stagecraft – drives our democratic institutions. ” Just because Americans like to think that doesn’t make it so. In my experience, it’s best to consider all “news” photos as contrived, or if not contrived, selected.

    If you have doubts, beg, borrow, or steal a reasonably up-to-date digital camera (mine is a Nikon D300) and fire off of few 6-frames/second bursts of somebody talking and then see what kind of “emotions” have been captured for you to choose to “represent” the speaker.

    This isn’t something new, it’s just an easier way that’s been done for who knows how long.

  • http://thealientruth.om bagni

    dave
    the difference is when you were a kid
    the number of impressions opportunity, combined with an increased public idiocy factor
    and you got well…
    what you got….

  • Cay

    Could be a new mudflap icon for the trucks of Alaska!

  • Julia Grey

    That cover is laid out badly. There’s too much empty blue space in the upper right hand corner.

    I know why it ended up that way, though. It’s a combination of the awkward title and Pawlenty’s undoubted demand to appear as, literally, an “upstanding” guy taking up 7/8 of the height of the the cover.

    Even adding “The” to the title would have helped a little. Or they could have cropped him in farther on the left, or resized him/lowered him down to make it possible to put the word “courage” above his head to the right. Or any number of other maneuvers to mitigate that big, unbalanced blue blank.

    The way it is, it definitely gives the impression that “the courage to stand” isn’t all that important compared to Mr. Pawlenty’s IMAGE.

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