The whole thing over the relationship between the media and bin Laden just seems to keep taking strange turns. There is now a controversy brewing over how still news photographers were allowed to photograph Obama after he had addressed the nation on TV. Essentially, Obama's second take for the print and online media was a re-enactment.
Is this news? Is the White House trying to deceive the public by re-creating an event that had already been created a minutes earlier? First and foremost, everything that comes out of the White House is a staged event. That the event consecutively happen for two very different media platforms be considered duplicitous by some standards is a specious argument. Does the general public really give a hoot about who took the president's picture and when? No.
It's common knowledge that since the JFK days, any "news" coming out of the West Wing is going to be carefully groomed for public consumption.
The Poynter Institute quotes Reuter's photojournalist Jason Reed as describing how photojournalists were managed:
“As President Obama continued his nine-minute address in front of just one main network camera, the photographers were held outside the room by staff and asked to remain completely silent. Once Obama was off the air, we were escorted in front of that teleprompter and the President then re-enacted the walk-out and first 30 seconds of the statement for us.”
The National Press Photographers Code of Conduct states, "It is the individual responsibility of every photojournalist all times to strive for pictures that report truthfully, honestly and objectively." Taking this bit of knowledge and applying it to how the press is repeatedly manipulated by the government, there appears to be a little irony given the current situation. Ethically we are faced with a dilemma in that notions of truth, honesty, and objectivity can be pretty much thrown out the window considering the fact the media is constantly compromised by political ambitions and agendas. The ground rules are written by the media here. You either play the game as Obama wants you to play it or you just don't play. Any refusal to participate in the "dog and pony show" culture of the White House means opting out from the realm of power politics in this country. P.S.: don't count on this ever happening soon.