On November 21 of this year I happened across “November 22, 1963,” a short film by Errol Morris, which features an unlikely interviewee: a Navy Seal turned Kierkegaard scholar turned high-profile private investigator named Josiah “Tink” Thompson. Though I met him only once, almost 46 years ago, I recognized him immediately. […]
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Follow me on Mastodon:
@adcoleman@hcommons.social
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The term “sock puppet” has come to denote people who create false web identities with which to generate online attention to and (usually) praise of themselves ― such as posting favorable comments about and reviews of their own work at Amazon and other sites. We need another term for those who hide behind false names in order to do other kinds of online harm to people, and I propose “web weasel.” […] We need to preserve anonymity in some situations― that’s what makes whistle-blowing possible, among other things. But no reputable print periodical would publish unsigned letters to the editor; they require a verifiable sender, though they’ll withhold a name on request if there’s a good reason for it. No reason that online forums, and the comments section of periodicals and blogs, shouldn’t subscribe to the same standards. […] The Republic Party goon squad, with the malevolent John Boehner and the smirking Ted Cruz as their pit bulls, lost me the opportunity to engage with a cluster of my colleagues in putting photography from 1980 through the present in perspective, and cost me a paying gig. That makes it personal. […] |
 SPJ Research Award 2014All content of this publication is © copyright 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 by A. D. Coleman unless otherwise noted. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced for commercial purposes without prior written permission. All photos copyright by the individual photographers. "Fair use" allows quotation of excerpts of textual material from this site for educational and other noncommercial purposes.
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JFK, Tink Thompson, and “Six Seconds in Dallas” (2)
What I took away from Thompson’s book “Six Seconds in Dallas” that nourished my budding inclination to start working as a photography critic was this: Close, patient attention to the particulars of lens-derived images would reward the viewer in unpredictable ways. […]