“I like photographers – you don’t ask questions.” – Ronald Reagan
Despite declining sales, newspapers still set the agenda that TV news follows, that the public swallows, then shares on social media. Lying may be a sin the press occasionally commit, but its not as serious as the sin of distraction:
The government has abolished the Child Poverty Unit, the Prime Minister announced,
WEARING LEOPARD SKIN SHOES!!!
That’s the story behind my latest distraction, PRAV(D)A (gettit? – propaganda/shoes???) –a 16 page newspaper, which mainly consists of pithy quotes I’ve copied and pasted from someone else and the choicest selection of photographs of Theresa May’s shoes that I could find on Getty Images picture library. In other words I gave myself the idea when I wrote the post ‘The Fourth Estate’ below.
Photographers try to make a politician reading an autocue into a picture that a newspaper will spend £458 on. They have to stay for the whole speech, so they snap a few full length shots, a few head shots, a few audience reaction shots then the same again in horizontal and vertical formats. Then they look to see if they can get the slogan on the backdrop to say something rude if the politicians head blocks out a letter. Then they spend the rest of the speech catching the talking head looking stupid. Or, in the case of Mrs May, they photograph her feet – or make her look stupid.
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