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Topic: Letters Sent to Romenesko
Date/Time: 8/31/2005 11:22:41 AM
Title: "Found" vs. "looted"
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
 
From CHRISTINA PAZZANESE: A friend alerted me to these two images of the Katrina aftermath published online by Yahoo News today. What we both found very disturbing was how two photographers taking shots of people searching for food while battling the flood waters decided a white subject "found" bread in a store, while a black subject had "looted" his meal.

Seems to me the national "crisis mode" coverage of Katrina in a predominantly black, poor part of the country presents a number of professional challenges for everyone in the media around the subject of racial and economic sensitivity.

I am curious how one photographer knew the food was looted by one but
not the other. Were interviews conducted as they swam by? Should
editors, in a rush to publish poignant or startling images, relax their standards or allow personal or regional biases creep into captions and stories?

Perhaps these photos will stimulate a media "gut check" as we race to
tell the stories of the thousands who lost their lives and livelihoods.

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