Spiked? Don’t worry, it can win an award
THE DISCONNECT between media awards and media reality is a cause for concern in the USA, where top prizes have gone to a story and picture that have hardly been seen.
Reporter David Barstow won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting with an expose in the New York Times of the way that retired US generals working as radio and TV “analysts” had been co-opted by the Pentagon to make its case for the war in Iraq.
There have been Congressional inquiries and allegations that the Pentagon programme violated broadcasting regulations on the airing of propaganda. But the story has never been covered by any of the TV networks. The Pulitzer Prize list was covered by NBC and CNN with all reference to David Barstow’s award deleted, simple as that.
Just as prestigious as the Pulitzer in the awards calendar is World Press Photo. Photograph of the Year for 2008 has gone to Anthony Suau for a black and white image of a cop in Cleveland, Ohio, aiming a gun into a room as he clears a house for eviction. It was part of a photo-essay on the American economic crisis, shot for Time magazine.
But Time didn’t publish it — though it did later put some images on the website.
In an interview Anthony Suau — who has himself won a Pulitzer and has taken the top World Press Photo prize twice before — said he worries the economic crisis may lead to him too losing his own home.
“I haven’t had a single assignment this year except for covering the presidential inauguration for a Japanese book publisher ... I may have to do something else besides photography.”
He’s not the only one saying that. Is it any consolation to NUJ photographers that the best in the world is suffering the same as them?