October 2007 Archives

This comment came from a reader.

"Why on Earth would your news organization allow pictures of decapitated animals to be posted online (online Whittier Daily News, 10/10/2007), in such a gruesome manner? More so.., to be posted in
an album with several photos. Is this the type of journalism that you want to be known for? What next; decapitated passengers in a car crash?

"The photo album reminded me of one of those magazines with horrible pictures of accident victims, that neighbors brought home whenever they returned from visiting Mexico. And, NO, I never gawk at traffic accidents myself.., ever.

"I hope you understand that you just gave whomever did this a public forum and probably motivation to do this type of crime again?

"All I really want to say is to please think twice, and three times if necessary when choosing photos. If you really felt that you needed to print ONE photo, a long-shot showing the Animal Control truck and
officer from a distance would have been enough to give the viewer the general idea of what happened.

"...come on, you have a great community paper. Keep it great...

"Regards,

"Rubin Mendoza
Whittier resident and father"

If anybody is interested, the gallery can be accessed by clicking here. Keep in mind that some of the photos could be considered gruesome.

These stories are from 2006 so I'm sure a lot of you knew this already, for those who didn't, myself included, they're pretty interesting.

A friend of mine was telling me about an argument he was having with his dad who believe the FBI could track anybody using the GPS abilities on every cell phone. While it's not surprising that a cell phone can be enabled with GPS, it was surprising to me that all phones are already GPS'd and are trackable by the FBI. Check out this link.

Once I found this out by doing a simple search with Google, my friend told me about another argument he was having with his dad. His dad was telling him that any cell phone, whether it is in use or not, can be listened to, again by the FBI. What? A cell phone that is not in use can be used to listen to you and your conversations as a trasmitter device? Another Google search lead me to this.

Paranoia runs deep, doesn't it?

It was our time to be just like the paparazzi today, at least I'm sure that's what the perception is. One of our staff photographers, Raul Roa was in court to photograph a drunk driver accused of running over and killing a 15-year-old kid. The courtroom allowed Raul to shoot in court and he did his best to get a photo of the woman, Melissa Serrato, but she pulled some hair in front of her face obscuring it from view. This is the photo of her in court.

Raul Roa/Staff©

Raul knew he didn't have a clean photo of her face and decided to go outside and wait for her to leave the courthouse.

(FYI: The rules of the court are that court approved photos do have limits when on the premisses of the courthouse. Photos can only be shot inside the courtroom and designated places inside the courthouse. In most cases, there are not limitations outside the courthouse where it is considered public.)

Raul waited outside on the sidewalk and she with her attorney came around a corner, spotted Raul, and moved back inside the building. Raul was then verbally attacked by people who yelled at him saying he was invading her privacy. He got this photo of her before she moved behind a corner.

Raul Roa/Staff©

Paparazzi photograph with the idea that the photos they get will make them money due to how valuable the people are that they photograph, whether they are in the news or not. Photojournalists shoot with the idea the photos they shoot due to the news value.

Imagine now the celebrities feel now when they get arrested for drugs or drunk driving. News value, and valuable news with the paparazzi rubbing shoulders with the news photographers. News photographers, in general, don't like it when they have to hang with the paparazzi to shoot celebrities in trouble, but for the news photographer, shooting the celebrity isn't much different than shooting Melissa Serrato.