In the eye of the beholder

Al Reuters covered the Roberts hearing by making available this photo of Justice Roberts: Am I being a raving lunatic or was this photo Al Reuters' deliberate attempt to make the poised, qualified, thoughtful, intelligent, charming Roberts look like a raving lunatic? UPDATE: Don Quixote, during a lunch time talk, thought I was being hypersensitive, and that this was indeed, as Bruce points out in a comment, just one in a series of photographs of Justice Roberts. He asked if the press can publish only "nice" photos of political people. No, I said. The can publish "news" photos of political people. It wasn't "nice" to see Gary Hart canoodling, but it was news, since he'd lied. On the other hand, there's no news value in the "stars without makeup" photos on the covers of the National Enquirer -- that's just meant to be mean. Circumstances support my argument with this latest Al Reuters photographic stunt: a photo of a note the President wrote to Condi Rice during a UN meeting, asking her to find good stopping point for a bathroom break. This is not news and it's not nice -- it's intended to bring the President down to the level of potty humor. The only reason to publish it could have been to demean him.