The controversy of the day, which no doubt will be gone tomorrow, is photographer Jill Greenberg's new exhibition,
"End Times." If you're smart enough to avoid cable news & talk shows, then you might not have heard of this brouhaha...
"End times" is a series of photos of crying children, with titles such as "Faith?" and "Four More Years" that are intended, in Greenberg's words, to depict the "helplessness and anger I feel about our current political and social situation."
The controversy lies in how Greenberg elicited the emotions of the children--she taunted them by giving them lollipops, then taking them away. Personally, I do have a problem with her methods. No, these kids won't be scarred for life. Toddlers cry at the drop of a hat and two seconds later are smiling and laughing. But these kids are not willing models--they're unwitting tools whose emotions are being manipulated, and looking at the photos, for me the discomfort of seeing how the kids have been toyed with overshadows any statement Greenberg is trying to make.
IMO, this is a tempest in a teapot, however--I only mention it because just wait--wait for it--the underlying theme of the SCLM outrage will be "Bush haters are so blinded by hate they're willing to torture children to try to make their point!" Never mind the cognitive dissonance of Bush supporters condemning "torture."