Sunday, June 12, 2011

Tucson | New Giffords pics by ex-Citizen photog

P.K. Weis, who worked at the Tucson Citizen for 36 years until Gannett closed the paper in 2009, took the photos of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords at her staff's request. The photos, released today, were made May 17 at TIRR Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, the day before Giffords had a cranioplasty to further repair damage inflicted Jan. 8 by a would-be assassin in Tucson, Ariz. These are the first clear photos of Giffords taken since the shooting.

In a statement posted to a Giffords Facebook page, Weis said: “Any photographer in the country would have loved the opportunity to take these pictures and I was delighted to be asked. I’ve known Gabby for more than a decade and her staff asked me to do it because she wanted someone who was not a stranger -- someone she would be comfortable around."

Weis, now with SouthwestPhotoBank.com, was the Citizen's photo editor for 30 year.

Satisfying 'public curiosity'
Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, decided to make the photos public with hopes the pictures will help her avoid the glare of camera lenses when she begins outpatient therapy later this month, The Arizona Republic says in a story today.

The goal was to satisfy "public curiosity about her appearance," said C.J. Karamargin, Giffords' communications director. "We want to avoid a paparazzi situation," he told the paper.

Giffords now communicates most often in one- and two-word sentences and struggles to find the words she wants to say, Chief of Staff Pia Carusone told the Republic. She uses gestures and facial expressions to get her points across, and her staff and family sometimes "infer" what Giffords means, Carusone said.

Earlier: Cartoonist Matt Davies of The Journal News is finalist for one of this year's Pulitzer Prizes after Gannett lays him off from the Westchester, N.Y., daily.

20 comments:

  1. Do you think anyone at the Tucson Star knows this? Maybe their photo department should have asked Gifford's office if they could take her picture.

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  2. 11:35 The Arizona Daily Star -- the paper I believe you're referring to -- was given copies of the photos by her staff, as was the Republic.

    Background: The Star, owned by Lee Enterprises, is published via a joint operating agency owned 50-50 by Lee and Gannett. The Citizen was the other, smaller paper in that JOA until Gannett closed the daily in May 2009, and replaced it with an exceptionally bare-bones web-only product.

    GCI shares the JOA's profits with Lee, so both parties now make more money with the Citizen closed. At the time it was shuttered, the Citizen's newsroom employed about 65 people.

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  3. 11:47 I know. I once had a huge crush on someone who worked there.

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  4. Jim, the JOA was dissolved when the Citizen ceased publishing - there aren't two newspapers anymore, so there's not need for a JOA operating under the Newspaper Preservation Act.

    In its place is a 50/50 partnership between Gannett and Lee, dividing the spoils of the Star.

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  5. Thank you for that clarification, 1:56.

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  6. However, the most recent 10-K report to the SEC suggests the JOA still exists. Here's the relevant language:

    "Through May 2009, the company also published the Tucson Citizen through the Tucson joint operating agency in which the company held a 50% interest. Because of challenges facing the publishing industry, combined with the difficult economy, particularly in the Tucson area, the company ceased publication of the Tucson Citizen on May 16, 2009. The company retained its online site and 50% partnership interest in the joint operating agency, which provides service to the remaining non-Gannett newspaper in Tucson. The company’s share of results for its share of the Tucson operations are accounted for under the equity method, and are reported as a net amount in “Equity income (losses) in unconsolidated investee, net."

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  7. The Citizen still has a web site, so that might count and keep the JOA alive. Gannett's shuttering of the Citizen is one the most shameful things it's done.

    I'm glad PK was asked to photograph Gabby. He's a good guy and a good photographer. I know for a fact that the Republic did everything they could, including ceding some editorial control to Giffords' staff on previous stories about the Congresswoman. Congrats to PK.

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  8. Ceding editorial control, even under this circumstance, would have been a serious ethical lapse. So if that's true, someone oughta 'splain that to Republic editors.

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  10. Someone hit a nerve? So dish the full story to the rest of us here who are curious:

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  11. 2:18 That's a serious accusation. What's your evidence that editors ceded control? Can you provide links to stories?

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  14. 6:14, nice try, but I am employed and a big producer. And I'm not bitter. If a Gannett editor tried to cut a deal that gave up editorial control, that is a problem. If you are a reporter, would you want your subject to sign off what you write before its published? Would you want your bosses to make that call? Even at ethically challenged Garnett, what the REPUBLIC may have offered was wrong.

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  15. 6:14 should be easy to confirm this happened by calling Gifford's office. Once you do this, no one respects you anymore, including confidences.

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  16. Confession time: This now comes down to two people, the editor and the reporter. If the editor did it without telling the reporter, it's a problem. And if the reporter did it without talking to an editor about it, then that is a problem, too.
    But if they both talked about it and have some reason that it was done, no real problem except I as the average reader would like to hear what that justification might be.

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  17. I don't want to add pressure on the family about this, but I do want to note Congress is heading sometime in the next eight weeks towards a showdown over the debt limit, cutting in federal programs, increasing tax increases and dealing somehow with Medicare's long term viability. They probably will come to this conclusion very quickly, and it is likely to win approval in the House with a one-vote margin, and in the Senate with a 50-50 vote and Vice President Biden casting the deciding vote in favor of it. That is why the pressure is going to mount now on Gifford's family to decide her future in Congress, just as pressure is sure to mount on Rep. Weiner. It normally takes about six weeks to conduct a special election for a House seat.

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  18. Don't worry about your comment adding to any pressure, 9:08. I sincerely doubt the Giffords family is reading Gannett Blog.

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  19. I wouldn't wish these sort of decisions on anyone. With public officials there are additional concerns since they are supposed to be working for us, not themselves or just their families.

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  20. Regarding Westchester -
    Anonymous said.. As a 25 year plus Gannett veteran, who was just laid off on Tuesday June 21, it doesn't matter who runs Westchester internally- The Publisher, VP's and managers are all puppets. The place is run out of the East Group /Division with Don Lemire at the helmn. Westchester is the sequel to the titanic.

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Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."

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