NYT:Bush at the Door:metaphor for a man who can't hide anymore

Bush at the Door

President Bush wasn't all that obvious at first glance. It was the bright red backgrounds in the rare stacked sequence of four pictures extending below the fold of The Times's front page that made the photos impossible to miss. And at the bottom, a carefully crafted caption sought to suggest that this serious chunk of space was being devoted to - well, humor.

"After meeting with reporters in Beijing, Mr. Bush tried to exit through a locked door," the caption stated. "Realizing the mistake, he made a mock grimace, and an aide pointed the way. He joked: 'I was trying to escape. It didn't work.' "

But a number of readers didn't see the humor in the photo sequence that appeared on Nov. 21. Almost all the reader e-mails to the public editor about the presentation criticized it as not-so-subtle editorializing against Mr. Bush, disrespectful to the presidency, inappropriate for the front page of a serious newspaper or simply not amusing.

At least one non-fan of the president saw in the pictures an intended message. "After laughing out loud and upon further reflection," Stephen M. Salvatore, of Yountville, Calif., wrote in a letter to the editor published on Nov. 23, "I felt that these photos encapsulate his presidency beautifully. It was such a metaphor for a man who can't hide anymore. Poetry in motion. Well done."

All these reader complaints and suspicions spurred me to explore how the decision was made to run the photo sequence on the front page.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/opinion/04publiceditor.html?pagewanted=2&hp

who blunders into everything and can't find his way out.

as shown by his many business and government activities.

and the Chicago Tribune apologized to its readers for running the photo, which they had thought was flattering...."it amounted to a Page 1 editorial in which George W. Bush was being labeled an idiot and a clown, unsuited to the presidency"....

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0211210393nov21,1,7863108.column?coll=chi-navrailnews-nav