The Camera Is Simply Not The Supple

Journalists Justify Their Treachery In Various Ways According To Their Temperaments. The More Pompous Talk About Freedom Of Speech And ‘the Public’s Right To Know’; The Least Talented Talk About Art; The Seemliest Murmur About Earning A Living.

Fidelity To The Subject's Thought And To His Characteristic Way Of Expressing Himself Is The Sine Qua Non Of Journalistic Quotation.

[richard Avedon's] Camera Dwells On The Horrible Things That Age Can Do To People's Faces - On The Flabby Flesh, The Slack Skin, The Ugly Growths, The Puffy Eyes, The Knotted Necks, The Aimless Wrinkles, The Fearful And Anxious Set Of The Mouth, The Marks Left By Sickness, Madness, Alcoholism, And Irreversible Disappointment.

Every Journalist Who Is Not Too Stupid Or Too Full Of Himself To Notice What Is Going On Knows That What He Does Is Morally Indefensible. He Is A Kind Of Confidence Man, Preying On People's Vanity, Ignorance Or Loneliness, Gaining Their Trust And Betraying Them Without Remorse.

The ‘i’ Character In Journalism Is Almost Pure Invention. Unlike The ‘i’ Of Autobiography, Who Is Meant To Be Seen As A Representation Of The Writer, The ‘i’ Of Journalism Is Connected To The Writer Only In A Tenuous Way—the Way, Say, That Superman Is Connected To Clark Kent. The Journalistic ‘i’ Is An Overreliable Narrator, A Functionary To Whom Crucial Tasks Of Narration And Argument And Tone Have Been Entrusted, An Ad Hoc Creation, Like The Chorus Of Greek Tragedy. He Is An Emblematic Figure, An Embodiment Of The Idea Of The Dispassionate Observer Of Life.