The Chicago Tribune chose not to publish work by a staff photographer who entered the site of the collapsed World Trade Center while wearing a Chicago Fire Department T-shirt.
Bill Parker, the paper’s associate managing editor for photography, told Poynter.org that photographer John Smierciak got a ride from Chicago to New York with a volunteer unit of the Chicago Fire Department.
“He grabbed what he had and hit the road with the clothes on his back,” said Parker. “He did what he was supposed to do in working with the firefighters. We feel strongly that he never misrepresented himself, but he did make a mistake of judgment.”
The mistake of judgment was wearing the Fire Department shirt as he entered the site of the collapsed towers on Friday, Sept. 14.
His digital images were transmitted from the Tribune‘s New York office. Torry Bruno, the Tribune‘s deputy director of photography, said Smierciak described the circumstances under which he took the photographs after they had been received in the electronic picture desk in Chicago.
Informed of the circumstances, Parker refused to view the images.
Said Bruno: “The images remained in the picture desk system for two to three days with all kinds of “Do Not Publish” disclaimer markings and spike notices. We kept them in the system for all to see and to discuss the situation as a learning experience. We then deleted them from the system so that they would not be archived.”
Parker indicated that the Tribune‘s employee manual prohibits the kind of deception that may have occurred as a result of wearing the shirt.
“When we learned about what had happened,” Parker said, “we informed him that we would not use those images and we did not look at them.”
“We feel it was a very unfortunate situation,” Parker said. “He did not intend to misrepresent himself and, in fact, refused other kinds of clothing.” He added: “There will be no penalty. He is not in any kind of trouble.”
Reached by telephone, Smierciak confirmed Parker’s account of the incident, adding: “I walked into hell and I walked out. No further comment.”
The incident occurred amid some of the most chaotic circumstances veteran photographers could recall.
“It’s like no other event I’ve ever seen,” said James Dooley, director of photography at Newsday. “This was left open to the sheer tenacity of the photographers to … get telling images.”
Patrick Witty, a freelance photographer who focused on people’s reactions to the terrifying events, said: “During these days, a press pass didn’t mean anything. Everybody had passes.”
CNN and other news outlets reported that several photojournalists had been arrested for impersonating rescue workers. Several photographers shared stories of credentialed photographers being held in holding pens while amateur photographers were provided closer access to the scene.
Joan Rosen, state photo editor for the Associated Press in New York, says, “Access was a major challenge…AP staff photographers were frustrated and reported seeing people disguise themselves as photographers.”
She added: “We had a couple of rescue workers bring in photos to us and ask if we could donate any funds to the disaster funds. When we informed them that we could not contribute directly to the fund, they said that they would make the donation themselves. There still is a lot of bitterness among photographers.”
Details are still sketchy about exactly what happened in terms of possible deception by some photographers.
“Whether apocryphal or not, these stories speak powerfully to those times when journalists are tempted to cross the line, figuratively and literally,” says Bob Steele, who directs the ethics programs at Poynter.” In a piece published on Poynter.org, he added: “The ethics line divides honesty and deception. It divides common sense and rash behavior. Journalists who pose as someone else during a disaster are not just unwise and unethical. They are dangerous.”
According to Steele, “reporters and photographers fulfill unique and essential roles in our society, and that’s never clearer than when we report on major disasters. Yes, we should be aggressive, but we must be smart and principled.”
Steele says the editors at the Chicago Tribune gave proper deliberation to the matter of John Smierciak’s actions and photographs. “They took their editorial oversight responsibility seriously. Their resolution was thoughtful given the complex situation. They recognized that John faced extremely difficult challenges in covering this horrific story and that his unique connection with the Chicago firefighters complicated the matter. They decided John’s errors in judgment were human, but they carried consequences.”
That decision, says Steele, “demonstrates concern for both the person and the professional standards.”
