That, in the current environment, seems unlikely. The question now is whether the pictures will fade and the press, filled with declarations about the best interests of the boy, will stop hyperventilating and abandon the round-the-clock stakeouts. The Gonzalez relatives have helpfully furnished the pictures by turning Elian into a "Truman Show" character in the media bubble, playing and frolicking for the cameras and making the suspect "I don't want to go back to Cuba" videotape.
The media have gorged themselves on the story, helping to turn a custody case into an international crisis whose saturation coverage, according to the media center, has now surpassed that of the Princess Diana and JFK Jr. The Washington Post ran the gunpoint and reunion pictures the same size the Los Angeles Times also published both, with the gunpoint shot slightly larger.Įven the pictures themselves have been called into question, with the family and some Spanish-language radio stations charging that the reunion photo, in which Elian appears to have slightly longer hair than in the early-morning shot, may have been doctored. The New York Post ("Papa's Boy") and Daily News ("Together Again!") ran full-page shots of the reunion scene, projecting a happy image.īy contrast, the Washington Times ran a large picture of Elian at gunpoint and the Baltimore Sun a large one of the boy being carried away, both using smaller shots of Elian and his father-a display projecting a more sinister message. The New York Times ran a large picture of Elian and his father, with a smaller one of an agent carrying the boy to the van. The dueling images also created a dilemma for the Sunday newspapers: Which shot more accurately captured the day's tumultuous action? "The reaction is either 'look how awful the government is' or 'look how awful the family is for forcing the government to do this.' "
"Pictures like these will rivet people's attention, but there's been so much coverage that most people have already made up their minds about this case," he says. Such images may be less critical in the long run, suggests Robert Lichter of the Center for Media and Public Affairs. When the other photo became available, we did our best to balance the new image into the battle of images." The focus on the Miami relatives and the Reno-bashers really grotesquely distorts the public response to this whole matter."īut Dennis Murray, a Fox executive producer, says: "That was the news-the federal government deciding to send armed immigration agents to smash into that house." As a public service, he says, "we showed the image of the screaming kid being taken out. "Given the potency of television, that could be the lingering image, and it's a powerful one," says James Warren, Washington bureau chief of the Chicago Tribune.
Still, the Elian-at-gunpoint picture seemed indelible both on the air and in print.
Mindful of the propaganda war, however, Gonzalez's lawyer rushed to release photos of a smiling Elian reunited with his dad, stepmother and infant half brother, creating a reassuring counter-image to the violent scene. Nearly lost amid the sound and fury was Juan Miguel Gonzalez, Elian's father, who remained secluded with the son he was seeing for the first time in five months, refusing to play the game of parading the boy for the cameras. Yesterday morning, Marisleysis Gonzalez was back again with a tearful monologue on Capitol Hill-again carried live by the three cable networks-demanding to see Elian and holding up the AP photo emblazoned with the words "Federal Child Abuse." And a one-sided picture of events, obscuring the fact that the family had left the government little choice but to seize Elian by refusing to surrender custody during lengthy negotiations. CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel all cut away from Attorney General Janet Reno's news conference as the 21-year-old railed against the government raid, castigated President Clinton, gave a tour of the damaged home, said she'd begged the agents not to bring guns into the bedroom-all with hardly an interruption. It was the endlessly replayed footage of the agents hustling the boy into a van and driving off in the predawn darkness, followed by the inevitable shots of angry protesters.Īnd then, on the cable networks, came as many as three interviews on Saturday morning with Elian's distraught cousin, Marisleysis Gonzalez. It wasn't just the chilling Associated Press photo of the gun-toting federal agent and the frightened Elian Gonzalez-a picture that existed only because the 6-year-old's relatives allowed the photographer in. All weekend long, the rush of television images made Miami's suddenly famous Gonzalez clan look like the victims of a terrible and militaristic federal government.
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