Much has been written about the new season The Wire on HBO. Along with Baltimore and the Baltimore Police Department, The Sun, as the city's school system did last season, becomes a integral part of the critical darling created by former Sun reporter David Simon. So as I watched the first episode, replayed Monday night, I settled in with an open mind and a vested interest.
Not having watched regularly since the first season, some of the story points and changes were foreign to me. But the quick review of the previous season made it easy for me to get the general drift and feel at ease despite the lack of intimate knowledge of the story arc. Then I waited for The Sun to make a debut.
The first scene involving my employer takes place outside the loading dock as a group of old timers smoke and grouse about the management and the state of the paper. This is the rear loading dock at the Calvert Street offices and next to the parking lot used by the photo staff. As the group disperses, one of the lingerers rhetorically asks, "I wonder what it would be like to work at a real newspaper?" as he flicks a cigarette on the ground and snubs it out with his shoe. This same statement, police department replacing newspaper, would be dispassionately uttered by Officer James "Jimmy" McNulty as the episode goes to black.
The next scene dollies through the newsroom, an almost picture-perfect set recreation. Some of the extreme correct details of note: A night picture of the Domino Sugar plant, the sign reflecting in the water; the green color scheme of the columns throughout the network of cubicles; the tables and notes on computer monitors; "Swagg" as the name of photo editor called on the phone several times about "art." Weyman Swagger, affectionately known as "Swagg," is the night photo editor with The Sun and one of the senior members on staff. He has been with the paper for more than 40 years.
The only time photo is involved in the show is while others are talking about it or demanding, instead of requesting, particulars from the unseen "Swagg." Art is either not available or faked. The city editor, holding a printout of a fire photo by "Carlisle" with a singed doll in the foreground; we soon learn a common creation from this particular photographer. The old, stale trick -- talked about in this newsroom as if it still happens -- of a photographer loading the trunk with toys to "place" in fire photos is referenced. From the war stories I hear this kind of stuff used to happen a long time ago. It may still occur, but not at a professional paper with a respected staff. If "Carlisle," and I am guessing on the spelling, worked at the paper these days such a trick, repeated, would be held accountable by management and his peers.
It is referred to as a big no-no in all the journalism and photojournalism books of the modern age. In this state of journalism, where referencing commonly known material without some form of attribution might be enough of an infraction to get someone fired, to do such a thing is highly unlikely.
Beyond that only complaints about missed art are aired. This is television, I remember and tell myself, and not all is true and accurate. There is only so much time, only so much space. Therefore it has to be taken with a grain of salt. But one of these days some accuracy involving modern photojournalism, especially from a former newspaper reporter who seems to be taking his former managers to task on national television, might not be too much to ask.
