Church fires photog over Scalia picture: Freelancer pay for 'right thing'

[TaleWgnDg]

Church fires photographer over Scalia picture: Freelancer pays for ‘right thing’

by Jessica Heslam, Boston Herald, Boston, Massachusetts
Friday, March 31, 2006 - Updated: 01:24 PM EST

A freelance photographer has been fired by the Archdiocese of Boston’s newspaper for releasing a picture of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia making a controversial gesture in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on Sunday.


Antonin Scalia gestures inside the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston, Massachusetts
after the "Red Mass" that he attended
(Boston Herald exclusive photo by Peter A. Smith)

Peter Smith, who had freelanced for The Pilot newspaper for a decade, lost the job yesterday after the Herald ran his photo on its front page yesterday, Thursday, March 31, 2006). Smith said he has no regrets about releasing it.

“I did the right thing. I did the ethical thing,” said Smith, 51, an assistant photojournalism professor at Boston University.

Smith snapped the photo of Scalia flicking his hand under his chin after a Herald reporter asked the conservative jurist his response to people who question his impartiality on matters of church and state.

. . . snip . . .

The weekly Catholic newspaper made a “journalistic decision” not to run or release the photo, said Archdiocese spokesman Terry Donilon. “Because he breached that trust with the editor, we will no longer engage his services as a freelance photographer,” Donilon said.

“It’s nothing personal,” added Pilot editor Antonio Enrique. “I need to try and find people I can trust.”

While news outlets from across the country sought Smith’s photo yesterday, the archdiocese said there’s no proof that Scalia uttered an obsenity(sic) in the church. Smith said Scalia said, “To my critics, I say, ‘Vaffanculo,’ ” while making the gesture. That’s Italian for (expletive) you. “It was pretty clear,” Smith said yesterday. A Herald reporter who was nearby did not hear that utterance.

. . . snip . . .

. . . more at . . . http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=132932

(bold-faced type emphasis and hyperlinks added by TaleWgnDg)

Caveat: The Pilot cannot "fire" a free-lance reporter since the photographer/reporter isn't an employee. Just to set the record straight. It simply may not choose to use the photographer/reporter's "free lance" services any longer if it so wishes which evidently is the case here.

1.) For more on this "bad boy" on-going Boston saga of our SCOTUS associate justice including Justice Scalia's letter to the editor (LTTE) that he FAX'd to the Boston Herald, please see this DU LBT thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2195687&mesg_id=2195721


Scalia allegedly stated, “To my critics, I say, ‘Vaffanculo,’ ” while making the gesture!

2.) For Scalia's "bad boy" tactics in Switzerland earlier this month, please go to this DU thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=221&topic_id=31334&mesg_id=31365
(which includes an hyperlink to a video stream of his lecture, his following Q&A, and his brief interview . . . tis a rather lengthly stream but worth every patient effort particularly the Q&A where Scalia *dumps* for all the world to see)

[Demeter]

1. If the Church Feels It Has to Spin Scalia's Way

then it's clear that neither has an ethical leg to stand on.

[Benhurst]

2. Molesting altar boys is one thing; but enough is enough.

You can't have photographers documenting Fat Tony's making an obscene gesture in a holy place.

The truth is dangerous.

[TaleWgnDg]

3. Yup. And *word* has it that Boston's Roman Catholics don't

like Scalia's latest tactics one bit!

[Rex]

4. Tony looks higher than a kite!

What a total classless organism. Tony must not wipe his own ass anymore.

[stillcool]

5. and this from a member ....

of the Supreme Court? That really makes me feel so much more confident in the justice system...it seems all the institutions I grew up with have fallen around my feet. Empty castles.

[TaleWgnDg]

6. My take on all of this as a lawyer is that . . .

1.) Scalia may have impulse control problems
2.) Is a prime candidate to MC a talking-head 24/7 TV program a la O'Lielly
3.) May be looking to be impeached
4.) Cannot sit on SCOTUS and be America's #1 "bad boy"

Oh, and did I mention that Justice Scalia is an embarrassment to Italians? and to the legal profession?

[Olney Blue]

8. Not to mention, an embarrassment to AMERICANS.

[TaleWgnDg]

9. Oh, that's a given, and thanks for including it! n/t

[niyad]

20. and an embarrassment to catholics.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

7. I wonder what else he's a member of...

Where might he have friends in high places other than the Catholic Church?

[stillcool]

13. the Nixon administration....

and Cheney's Bird Brigade.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

15. Yes, but I was wondering about

mob connections.

[stillcool]

16. Huh....wow....I haven't thought about anything...

'mafia' since the 2000 election....but it appears Nino aimed higher and chose to be consigliere to the President rather than the Godfather...

[Fridays Child]

10. The picture confirms what I always suspected...

Scalia is a buffoon in a black robe.

[Baja]

11. That's nothing! check out these Bush Co. and family pictures!

BE WARNED THESE ARE EXPLICIT:


http://assholebush.typepad.com/photos/george_w_bush/

[cantstandbush]

12. We now know that we have at least two liars as Supremes--

Scalia and Thomas.

[saigon68]

22. THOMAS = "LONG DONG SILVER "

The content of the hearings, particularly Senator Orrin Hatch's questions "id you ever say in words or substance something like there is a pubic hair in my coke?" and "Did you ever use the term Long Dong Silver in conversation with Professor Hill?" rapidly became fodder for the nation's comedians.

link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Thomas

[TaleWgnDg]

14. Unreal, really, unreal: decorum of a sitting SCOTUS justice

Front page of Boston Herald, Boston's daily tabloid newspaper,
Thursday, March 30, 2006



Front page of Boston Herald, Boston's daily tabloid newspaper,
Friday, March 31, 2006

This "bad boy Nino" saga in Boston has been on-going since Sunday's "Red Mass" which Scalia attended and received Holy Communion then was caught in this act while still inside the Holy Cross Cathedral, Boston, Massachusetts. Word has it that Boston's Roman Catholics, particularly Italian-Americans, are quite displeased w/ Scalia's lack of decorum inside a church as well as that of a sitting SCOTUS justice. BTW, anybody know of the history of the "Red Mass?" Check out that imbedded hyperlink if curious.

[Hekate]

18. Why do I suddenly feel the Red Mass is distinctly UNecumenical in intent?

Thanks for the link. Our democratic/republic/noble experiment is certainly under seige by Christian theocrats of all stripes. :scared:

As for Scalia -- his ego and hubris seem to know no bounds, as already amply demonstrated before this event. The fact that he was recorded making an obscene gesture *in church* is just that more disgusting. The fact that he also sits on the highest court in the land and actively works to subvert it...

What a toad.

Hekate

[rocktivity]

17. If ‘Vaffanculo' is what he said, it doesn't really matter what he did

His INTENT was obscene. And note the copyright on that photo--it's the property of the newspaper, not the church. Both the paper and the photog had every right publish it to defend themselves against Scalia's falsehoods.

:headbang:
rocknation

[cureautismnow]

19. Hey, it's Louie DePalma!

Get that maniacal fraud off the high court and back into his taxi dispatching cage!

[HuffleClaw]

21. great example of what scalia thinks of free speech i guess

creepy as hell