The lord mayor respondeth

Well, Ray Nagin's office isn't too happy with that photo, and has issued a press release to register its official displeasure. Here it is from the mayor's communication director Ceeon D. Quiett in its entirety, unexpurgated and all too [sic]...

Statement Regarding Photos of Public Safety Press Conference

The photo selected to depict the public safety press conference on yesterday by the Times Picayune grossly misrepresented the Mayor of the City of New Orleans, the Superintendent of Police and the men and women of the police department. The press conference held by the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) was designed to display to the public the department's new crime fighting and life saving equipment. Further, the announcement acknowledged the entities that have worked in cooperation with the city to make this new equipment a reality-the State of La Delegation authorized over $6million in the last legislative session for the purchase of new equipment as well as to acknowledge other organizations that donated equipment to this recovering police force.

Yesterday's announcement was a lift to the morale of this heroic police department that lost much of it's resources in Hurricane Katrina and the flooding that resulted from the levee breaches. Mayor Nagin was and continues to be on the frontlines working to secure resources for this agency, as well as the other agencies within city government that are struggling to rebuild.

Unfortunately, photos of the command unit that will be stationed across from the NBA headquarters for this week's NBA All Star Game were not selected for publication, unfortunately photos of the smart boards and computer equipment that will allow officers to have real time data and analysis while in the field were not selected to educate, inform and reassure the publics confidence. Instead a photo, taken out of context, was selected by our own local media and now showcased across the nation as a mockery of all this city's recovery efforts. This is the real tragedy.

Comments

[Mark Folse]

That is hilarious, even for an old press flack like myself who might have written it once (after I finished cursing and punching the wall that my boss could do something that stupid.).

All of the crime problems in this city and they buy Robocop costumes. Did you see the picture on the dead tree version on B-1? Look at the guy in the background. What red-blooded, under-endowed chief of police wouldn't want his SWAT team dressed in those find Kelvar threads?

[Kevin]

Mark, I don't think you would've penned a defense that began:

"The photo selected to depict the public safety press conference on yesterday by the Times Picayune grossly misrepresented...."

I can accept that a "communication director" needs to obfuscate...but shouldn't part of the job be to, you know, communicate?

[Rachelle Matherne - Five by Five PR]

Oh man. Gotta love a communication director who uses "on yesterday" in an official statement. Not to mention, y'know, the rest of it.

Have you read any of the comments on NOLA.com under either the original story or the photo caption contest entries? I'm getting a huge kick out of the people who think the TP should not have published the photo because they are responsible for educating the public on proper gun safety. The biggest laugh was the person who said the photographer should have let Nagin know how bad he was making himself look. So newspapers' duties now include image management for local celebrities?

Gawd. Why don't people get what journalism & the media are actually about?

[Kevin]

"Have you read any of the comments on NOLA.com under either the original story or the photo caption contest entries? I'm getting a huge kick out of the people who think the TP should not have published the photo because they are responsible for educating the public on proper gun safety."

I did see one of those. I assume it's the same people who grouse when a subject is captured with a cigarette in a candid photo, or feeding a baby from a bottle.

As for the NOLA.com comments, that area has just become fora for racists much of the time - I avoid the comments below the stories as much as possible.

[Rabbit]

The photo was taken "out of context". I'm curious as to what the proper context might be ...

[Kate]

Um, and a misuse of the contraction "it's" for the possessive "its"? And the ludicrous photo, of course. Communication directors who can't communicate on top of a mayor who thinks that goofing off with new militaristic toys is a morale booster...? Sheesh.