Nickel Mines Shootings: Photographing the Amish...

[Geoff_M]

In the wake of the Amish school shootings of the last month, there have been a few examinations of the photojournalism ethics of covering such a tragedy. Covering the grief of ordinary people is a touchy enough of the issue, but compound that with the affected group being notoriously camera-shy and it moves the issue into another level.

Here are a couple very interesting follow-up articles on the subject. One is from a university's J-school journal, the second is from the Ombudsman of the WashPost in response to a lot of negative e-mail the paper received in response to the photos. Also, be sure to look at this gallery, there's some incredible works in there... Nickel Mines Photo Gallery Photo #3, made me say "Wow!" out loud.

How Do You Photograph the Amish? Let Us Count the Ways
Liz Cox Barrett
Last week, as details of the murders at an Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania were still unfolding, a CJR Daily reader wrote to us wondering whether "all the photogs flocking to the scene know" that the Amish believe that being photographed violates the Bible's second commandment. (Specifically, "Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath ...")


It's challenging enough, this reader suggested, to photograph a grieving community, to balance the news value of a given image against a certain respectfulness for its subjects. But how does one photograph a grieving community whose beliefs prohibit them from being photographed?


"I'm curious," the reader wrote, "about the editorial calls made on photographing the distraught Amish/not photographing them. In some cases it looks like there was consent, but I can't be sure. In others it looks like the Amish were photographed without notification ... I am genuinely curious -- does the newsworthiness of the story override sensitivity/respect for their traditions? Some of the photographic coverage seems a bit like voyeuristic rubbernecking to me ..."


We put these questions to several news photographers and editors who covered the story last week, all of whom indicated that they made a special effort to be as sensitive as possible. As one photographer put it: "It was a torturous enough assignment first because of what it was and then because they were Amish on top of it." What "being sensitive" meant in practice, however, varied from photographer to photographer.


Carolyn Kaster, a Harrisburg, Pa.-based Associated Press photographer, has worked extensively with the Amish community during her fifteen-year career and, when the news of the shooting broke, she sought "guidance" from an old source -- an Amish woodworker -- about how to handle the assignment. The man stressed the importance of telling the story and advised that everyone is different, to ask each individual how to proceed. Kaster describes as typical her approach to a recent project involving the Amish: "I talk to them, [tell] them what I'm doing and that I [will] photograph them in a way that [won't] identify them or make them stand out. I [make] them part of the landscape, silhouette them."


This is similar to the tack that Dan Marschka, a photographer for the Lancaster, Pa. Intelligencer Journal, takes when photographing the Amish community. Explained Marschka, "I understand the religious aspect and we have a policy here we try to adhere to [vis à vis the Amish]: we try not to take recognizable photos, where people are recognizable, in a non-news situation." He added, "If it's a news situation, the Amish understand and so do we that they are part of a very public event and if they present themselves that way in the midst of that news situation, it's all understood."


Ed Hille, a longtime Philadelphia Inquirer photographer, concurred that, in this case, the news value of the photographs trumped most cultural considerations. "This wasn't a story about the Amish and their quaintness," Hille said. "It was about five girls who were executed by a sick person. We were covering a news story."


Hille's Inquirer colleague, Scott Hamrick, added, "To a certain extent, you take the picture and you presume that your editor will make sure that if there's a concern about something being too graphic or painful that the editor won't use that photograph." Continued Hamrick, “My job is to collect the information and begin the process of telling the story. I shoot first, ask later.”


The AP's Carolyn Kaster appreciates this approach but has a slightly different philosophy: whenever possible, do no harm. "You can go through this business and try to make pictures of impact and importance but if an image is to have a journalistic purpose, to communicate something, if you can communicate it in a different way, without causing harm, then I think you're obliged to do that," Kaster said. She described a photograph that she declined to take last week because consent was not granted: She approached an Amish school in the area and "without my cameras explained who I was and what I'd like to do, to take a picture of kids on school grounds with no one singled out." The teacher told Kaster that the children were "very wary" and asked her not to take the picture. "I said no problem. I did not make that photograph."


Kaster went to two other schools and got the same answer. "I had every right as an American to stand on public property and take that photograph," she said. "I could've taken the picture and asked the teacher later. But that's just how I approach this community." Kaster added, "That might have been a key picture -- children in the schoolyard of a one-room Amish schoolhouse," and conceded that colleagues might criticize her for not having taken that photograph. "But," she said, "I found another way to communicate what I wanted to communicate that I felt was within the boundaries of the [Amish traditions]" -- by waiting for the children to get out of school and "be away from the school house environment," finding a group of them walking home and talking to them and photographing them as they "hammed it up." Said Kaster, "I could tell I wasn't frightening them and causing them grief by photographing them. And I did have a job to do. I needed to make pictures of the Amish community, specifically children." (As both Kaster and the Intelligencer Journal's Dan Marschka pointed out, the Amish are baptized as adults and so children, not yet church members, are not under the same religious prohibitions regarding photography).


Several photographers noted that subjects' consent, in this case, was often hard to get as the media were frequently cordoned off behind police lines. Said Carolyn Cole, a New York-based, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer for the Los Angeles Times: "When I arrived [at the crime scene], it was evident that everything was in lockdown. I wasn't going to have to make a decision [about whether to ask first or shoot first]. The decision was made for me before I arrived there because it was all blocked off." Cole relied heavily on her long lenses.


The Philadelphia Inquirer's Ed Hille, too, largely used long lenses last week -- both out of necessity and, he said, in an effort to be respectful. In the first hours after the news broke, Hille shot an image of a group of Amish men gathered around a police car. "I shot this picture of these Amish gentlemen with a long lens because I tried to put myself in the subjects' shoes here. I tried not to be intrusive. I tried to back off and see what I could get."


All of the photographers we spoke to stressed that the Amish, generally, did not react negatively to their presence or ask them to stop taking pictures. Said the Inquirer's Hille, "I only heard of one [Amish] person, at least the first couple of days, who said, 'Don't take my picture.'" The Times' Cole described one situation where she photographed an Amish woman on her porch -- from afar, with a long lens -- and then "approached her and asked her if it was okay if I got her name. She wasn't interested in giving me her name." But, Cole said, "I didn't have anyone sort of turn their back on me or react as if they were uncomfortable or irritated. I didn't feel a real negative response from the people in that community." Cole contrasted this experience with the Columbine school shooting, which she also covered. "Columbine could not have been more different. It was just a very, very negative media experience. So much so that the funerals we covered the students themselves would go to every measure to block our view, basically tell us to go away, we were kept at a far distance, same as this ... There was a clear response from the community of Columbine that media was not welcome ... I didn't feel that here."


On this point Jackie Larma, a Philadelphia-based AP photo editor who oversaw the wire service's photographic coverage of the Nickel Mines shooting, said, "I asked [the photographers], 'Did anyone object?' Nobody had. It was probably because they were in shock, but there was no word of 'Stop shooting me' or whatever. No objection was verbalized to the photographers. I think it was the circumstances." But, adds the Inquirer's Hamrick, because the media were often "held back several hundred yards ... there wasn't necessarily the random contact and interaction with the people that would allow them to express frustration toward us."


Given the sheer size of the media extravaganza that cropped up in and around Nickel Mines last week -- much of it consisting of out-of-state journalists with little to no experience working among the Amish -- there was sure to be some bad behavior.


Said the Intelligencer Journal's Marschka, "The national media are generally ignorant of the [Amish] culture, other than that they dress differently and ride in horses and buggies." The AP's Kaster elaborated: "Any person with a beard or a buggy was considered Amish [by the media at large] -- 'Oh my gosh, they have a beard! They must be Amish!' A Pennsylvania Dutchman who is married has a beard. He might be Mennonite. He might be Amish ... I never took for granted that someone was Amish."


Marschka, who observed "some metros and wire photographers trying to find a way around to the perimeter of the cemetery, to get past the state police," said, "It does make me flinch that some photographers are insensitive to the point where they're possibly taking pictures that don't really matter." He added, "It's tough. I'm almost embarrassed sometimes for my profession in a time like this, but it's also a conflict because I know we have to report what happens, it's a news event, but a clash of cultures is what it ends up being. We deal with it one day at a time, one photograph at a time."


Locally based photographers like Marschka and Kaster had, of course, incentives -- beyond simple human decency and respect -- to tread carefully. "I live there," Kaster said. "I have to go back there. If I act like a big jerk, they're going to know my car, and they're not going to be open to my presence. Because it's a small world."

Link

 

[Geoff_M]

Here's the piece from the WashPost Ombudsman:

Photographing the Grief of the Amish

By Deborah Howell
Sunday, October 15, 2006; B06

The horror of the Oct. 2 schoolhouse shooting that left five Amish girls dead and five more critically wounded brought into vivid conflict the journalistic value of bringing the news to readers and the human value of wanting privacy in grief.

Add to this Amish feelings about being photographed, and the event presented a situation of great sensitivity to Post editors and the photographers -- Michael Williamson, Linda Davidson and Katherine Frey -- on the scene in Bart Township, Pa.

Several readers were offended by the photos, especially one at a cemetery. Mary Ann Kirkpatrick of Alexandria wrote: "The Amish community . . . has suffered an unspeakable loss. While the photos in the paper . . . are tasteful and have not sensationalized the story, they are in violation of the religious beliefs of the Amish people. They consider images of themselves to be 'graven images.' . . . At this highly distressing time for the community, I would have expected a paper of the caliber of The Post to honor those beliefs and not cause more duress."

A gallery of photos, not all by Post photographers, can be viewed at http://www.washingtonpost.com/photo .

The Post's photos mostly were taken from public spaces -- roads and sidewalks -- and many were taken through telephoto lenses from as far as 100 yards "with respect and dignity," said Joe Elbert, assistant managing editor for photography.

Williamson said that local residents, being protective of the Amish, gave visiting photographers rules on photographing them: Don't just walk up and start snapping, keep your distance, and try not to be seen to avoid giving offense. Photographers also were told to take pictures of Amish people from the back or the side, Williamson said.

Frey asked for permission when photographing Amish people up close and got "varying degrees" of cooperation. One man interpreted the rule against photographs as "not worshipping a graven image," so that if the photograph wasn't going to be worshipped, it was fine to take it.

In fact, it is common for photographers to ask permission in sensitive circumstances. Frey did so before she took an eloquent photo of Janice Ballenger, a Lancaster County deputy coroner, as she sat on the altar, head in her hands, at a Methodist church. Distressed by the crime scene photos, Ballenger was seeking counsel at the church. Ballenger, who is not Amish, assented.

"Katherine was so nice and stayed to talk with me and even called me this week to see how I was doing. She'll never know how much I appreciated it," Ballenger said.

The relationship between photography and the Amish is more complex than it seems, according to David Weaver-Zercher, an expert on the Amish who is also an associate professor of American religious history at nearby Messiah College.

"I'm sure they were bothered by the intense news scrutiny," he said. Although the Amish near Lancaster, Pa., are "quite accustomed to being photographed" by tourists, different Amish people have different levels of resistance. But "they do not take pictures of one another because images represent pride. The Amish don't pose for photographers.

"Many Amish people are uncomfortable even being asked to take their photograph -- not wanting to grant permission but also not wanting to be too assertive in expressing their displeasure. Some actually prefer that they not be asked, so that it doesn't put them in a difficult situation. Many Amish think it leaves their conscience unsullied by not being asked."

The photograph that brought the most complaints was taken from a helicopter and showed mourners walking to a gravesite with a small casket. It bothered Weaver-Zercher. "My sense is that the Amish mourners would have been aware of the helicopter nearby. To me, and certainly to the Amish, a burial demands a greater degree of sensitivity. Although a helicopter was perhaps not as intrusive as having photographers on site, I suspect it was intrusive and troublesome to the mourners. Ultimately, I wish the picture had not been taken, let alone run in The Post."

Davidson took that picture from a small helicopter that twice circled the cemetery from about a half-mile to a mile away at about 1,000 to 1,500 feet, said Steve Bussmann of Vienna, the pilot. Bussmann said he did not fly directly over the cemetery and did not hover. "We were trying to be as sensitive as we could possibly be, operating as far away as we possibly could for as short a time as possible (about eight minutes) and not disturbing people on the ground."

Davidson said, "Personally, it bothered me to take photos of the Amish, and it has stuck with me all week. But as unpleasant as it is to be on either end of the camera, this was a story of historical magnitude that does warrant coverage, tasteful and sensitive coverage and photo documentation. Aside from the horror of it all, the world has learned so much from the Amish this past week, about faith, humility and immediate forgiveness, all done by example."

Originally, the graveside photo was to be at the bottom of the front page. Executive Editor Len Downie moved it to the top. "The picture captured the very powerful nature of the tragedy. The Post frequently runs close-up pictures of people with emotion etched on their face. This photo didn't show a single face."

I had glimpsed the photo on a monitor in the newsroom; it stopped me in my tracks and made me choke up. It was worth publishing, despite the intrusion, because the photo itself was a lamentation and a eulogy to the dignity, stoic faith and acceptance of the Amish.

Link

 

[jann1033]

i live very near one of the largest amish communities in the world and i have to say, imo this is kind of a non issue, at least in my area...

anyone who knows anything about amish would have to agree they are united in being disunited ..their beliefs literally change from one street to the next determined by the small group they meet with and the elder who is over that group. ie in my area in one block some have phones and electricity in their barns/out buildings, one street over some have it on their porches, the next block some do not have it at all( the vast minority)..

so i think asking would be the only solution to the photo issue ( like it would be proper to ask anyone) but like the article said, i doubt most would care unless their elders are nearby and happens to be one of those against photos( doubt that is prevelant, at least it's not in my area). in a group they are more concerned about what their community thinks than they are individually( mainly due to the financial hardship it brings about if they are shunned, they pay into a community fund for health care ect in my area and lose those benefits etc) so if there are a bunch around they might say no just due to that
i did get a chuckle from the articles though...maybe the amish there are way different than my area cause around here lack of "assertiveness" is not an issue which is why they don't have to clean up their horse duky that is all over the roads and fouling the public water system...they are not the "country bumpkins" some like to portray them as and know how to work the system as well as any yankee, maybe better than most since they don't have to pay land taxes either

i did just read the post following mine and i have to say i totally agree...too bad all that "should we or shouldn't we "doesn't apply to anyone undergoing a tragedy, instead someone is shoving a mic and camera in their faces when they are going through probably one of the worst moments in their lives

 

[JohnMouse]

These photographers(and TV cameramen) who go to funerals-of murder, fire, accident, war victims-remind me of the papparazzi who stalk celebrities. I call them "Grieferazzi". It is one thing to report the news, another thing to intrude on personal suffering in the hope of getting a sensational story. Just another example of the increasing incivility of our society.

 

[boBQuincy]

Unfortunately, it is the news-hungry public that demands these photos, that makes it lucrative for photographers to intrude on people's lives no matter what.
When the public starts demandng that "news"papers, magazines, and TV stop running these photos, and starts boycotting any media that do run these photos and stories, then we will see an end to this behavior.

I doubt this will happen.

 

[mickeyfan2]

I believe the story needed to be covered but did find some of the coverage to be excessive, but the Lancaster County Amish handled it with dignity.

I actually live amongst the Lancaster County Amish and all that was said is true here. Maybe in Ohio they are different, but in LC the Amish are not confrontational and I no of no case where they milk the system. LC Amish do pay property taxes and income taxes too.

 

[Geoff_M]

John, As with everything, there's a "right" way to do it and a "wrong" way. My father was a newspaper photographer for a number of years and covered a lot of fatalities. They weren't "fun" events for him and the details still come to the surface almost every time he passes the spot were the event took place. I can assure you that the PJ community doesn't like a lot of the behavior you're talking about either. They know the acts of a few idiots gives people a bad impression of the whole profession... as you've exhibited.

I thought it would be interesting to let people see the "other side of the coin" and see that there are people that ask questions about the "right" way to cover such news stories. It appeared to me that a vast majority of the media at Nickel Mines attempted to "do the right thing".

Jann, I've had occasional contact with the Amish and other Anabaptist members and I agree that it's a major misconception that they are a monolithic lot. It was interesting to read the WaPo article and see that their readers appeared to be so misinformed about what they thought they knew about the Amish.

 

[jann1033]

I believe the story needed to be covered but did find some of the coverage to be excessive, but the Lancaster County Amish handled it with dignity.

I actually live amongst the Lancaster County Amish and all that was said is true here. Maybe in Ohio they are different, but in LC the Amish are not confrontational and I no of no case where they milk the system. LC Amish do pay property taxes and income taxes too.

they don't have to pay property tax here because they take turn holding their church services in their homes ..don't really know if that is local, state or county law( although some would get a break due to agriculture anyway). and if you had seen the droves that turned out for the town meetings about the horse duky and the adament refusals to make the horses wear diapers or have to pay someone to clean it up...that might have changed your mind

any way not trying to get way ot .....so, with the shootings, it's a tragic situation but was just commenting on the way it is in my area, yours might be different

 

[Chipperdini]

(Edited out of respect for other poster's privacy.)

 

[jann1033]

Off topic, but I was just wondering...

-----------------------------



jann1033 - It's none of my business, I know, so I hope I don't offend... A time or two when I've happened to come across a post of yours, I've wondered if you attend my "hometown" church in Ohio. (I've never seen the name/nickname "Jann" spelled with two "n's" except in a pictoral church directory I have.) If so, small world. I've heard of sewage troubles in the area.

Road apples... my late paternal grandma just scooped 'em off the road in front of her home and used 'em to help fertilize her garden.

my church dosen't have a directory and my name is actually jan"et" ( the "jan" was taken so i added the 2nd n, not a real inventive screen name ) so probably not but small world anyway

 

[Geoff_M]

they don't have to pay property tax here because they take turn holding their church services in their homes

Are you sure about that? I Googled the notion and only could find just the opposite. Even a site from Ohio states that the Amish do pay property taxes (Link)

The only taxes, that I could find, they are exempted from are Social Security taxes... and only if they are working within the Amish community.

 

[Chipperdini]

jann1033 - Both those first names are given as first names in my (several years old now) directory. I have edited my previous post, and my apologies to you for what was probably an inappropriate inquiry in the first place. Just feeling a little "homesick" for my childhood "Amish Country" and church, I guess. I was out of line, and I'm sorry.

 

[jann1033]

Are you sure about that? I Googled the notion and only could find just the opposite. Even a site from Ohio states that the Amish do pay property taxes (Link)

The only taxes, that I could find, they are exempted from are Social Security taxes... and only if they are working within the Amish community.

well given i read it in a news paper and how inaccurate the above articles were ....
i maybe it's another widespread misconception and i could see how it could come about due to the social security thing ( most are self employed in construction or make wood furniture or lumber in our area although some of the unmarried girls work in restaurants and a few stores)but
there was a big deal locally due to the small town most of their farms surround having basically no revenue and the fact they own much of the land (and it said) they didn't pay taxes on it for the above reason ( as well as the town's general lack of industry ) was what they cited as being the problem ..if i got that wrong sorry.( i think it was maybe 4-5 yrs ago(?) i saw it as it was around the same time as the water contamination problem started since the question was who was going to pay to clean up the duky and the city couldn't afford it. it was a big stink, no pun intended, since it was getting in the drinking water)
i assumed it was accurate. i do know from our own church that churches are exempt (in our area) from property tax and since they don't have an actual building but meet in their homes it didn't seem far fetched to me. i looked (a llittle) on line after i read the link but don't see anything that says if they have church in their house if that is an exemption or not. i know in our area they have it in one home for a month then the next family in line has it...don't know if that would be the same all over or not or if that affects their taxes or not.
however since i don't live in that actual town I don't really care one way or the other ( except to remember not to get water if i eat at one of the restaurants there)
so if i'm wrong sorry. i actually meant it kind as a joke since there seems to be the conception of them as being poor farmers who know nothing about the ways of the world around them which isn't really the case, at least not in my area .i figured if they found a legal way to get around paying taxes that kind of shows they aren't so dumb. wasn't trying to be offensive or start a thread on amish dos and don'ts although since some in our area do have computers in their phone booths maybe if any are on the dis they can say what's what

 

[jann1033]

jann1033 - Both those first names are given as first names in my (several years old now) directory. I have edited my previous post, and my apologies to you for what was probably an inappropriate inquiry in the first place. Just feeling a little "homesick" for my childhood "Amish Country" and church, I guess. I was out of line, and I'm sorry.

no problem, i didn't really think it was out of line

 

[Kycha]

Thought you would like another perspective. This article was in our local paper.

"Going ‘Amish’ to get story
How some tried for a closer look

By Gil Smart
Sunday News

Published: Oct 14, 2006 11:31 PM EST

LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - The woman wore a brown dress and carried an apple crisp.




The first day of the funerals, Oct. 5, she walked along Route 896 near Georgetown when she came to a roadblock manned by Witmer Fire Co. volunteers, running security for the event.


I’m Amish, she told them. Just dropping off apple crisp, on the way to the funerals of the girls killed by Charles Carl Roberts IV Oct. 2.


Firefighters smelled something fishy, and it wasn’t the dessert. They asked her for identification; she had none. They grilled her some more, and finally got it out of her: Media. Trying to sneak in.


It was, said one Witmer Fire Co. volunteer, par for the very strange course.


Roberts barricading himself inside the since-demolished West Nickel Mines schoolhouse and shooting 10 young Amish girls ignited a media frenzy. It wasn’t the first time; late last year, CNN, Fox News and other outlets descended on Lancaster County after David Ludwig killed the parents of his 14-year-old girlfriend; then, in April, the satellite trucks and roving reporters were back, after Jesse Dee Wise Jr. murdered six members of his family in Leola.


Both times, the storyline was Murder in Amish Country. This time, though, those murdered were Amish; and two cultures collided head-on.


On one hand were the Plain people, unassuming, grieving, wishing only to be left alone. On the other, cameramen, photographers, reporters, many of them from metropolitan areas, completely out of their element in the heart of rural Lancaster County, unsure about the Amish and their strange-seeming customs.


And so the same ploys that might be used to get the scoop on Lindsey Lohan or Brad Pitt were used, instead, in Nickel Mines.


In addition to the woman with the apple crisp, another woman, decked out in a flowered pink dress and driving a car with Idaho plates, tried to sneak by security, claiming to be Amish.


There were bicyclists in full regalia — Spandex shirts and shorts, helmeted, with backpacks full of camera equipment. Reporters leapt in front of buggies and “Amish taxis,’’ demanding that Plain folks assent to having their pictures taken. Traipsing through residents’ yards, some offered security personnel hundreds of dollars to be permitted to get through.


Said the Witmer Fire Co. member, who asked not to be identified because state police asked those doing security to keep quiet, “It gave a whole new meaning to ‘media frenzy.’ ’’


“Media?’ asked an Amishman in the parking lot of Nickel Mines Auction Thursday afternoon. “I’m going to have to ask you to get off the property.’’


Polite. Firm. But maybe a little fed-up, too.


In the wake of the shootings, the parking lot behind Nickel Mines Auction became one of the media capitals of the United States. Several network- and cable-news shows originated from the parking lot. Fox News’ Greta van Susteren was on hand, as was Charles Gibson of ABC News. NBC’s “Today Show” did a segment live from Nickel Mines, and the international media was on hand as well, including BBC News.


This past Thursday afternoon, the frenzy was at last petering out. The schoolhouse had been razed before the sun had risen, and by noon the last TV trucks in the rutted parking lot behind the auction, at White Oak and Mine roads, were getting ready to pull out.


Along White Oak Road, signs warning “No parking or standing’’ were still up. A stylishly dressed woman holding a WJZ (Baltimore) Channel 13 microphone shot a segment at the crossroads, her heels stumbling on the uneven pavement, her hair blown by the passing trucks. Tourists, too, trickled by; elderly couples with Virginia plates, Arizona plates, slowly drove the roads, necks craned, trying to see where it all happened.


“It’s a good thing they tore [the schoolhouse] down,’’ said Drema Zook, a volunteer with Christiana Fire Co. “Otherwise, this would have become a major tourist attraction.’’


Christiana Fire Co. helped out with security the day Naomi Rose Ebersole, 7, Marian Fisher, 13, Mary Liz Miller, 8, and her sister Lena Miller, 7, were buried. All roads leading into Nickel Mines were blocked, and the media was herded into the parking lot of Georgetown United Methodist Church, a few miles away. A five-mile no-fly zone was established in the sky above Nickel Mines to keep media helicopters at bay. State Police were in charge of the operation; by virtually all counts, they did an efficient, splendid job.


But, said Zook, it was tough keeping up with enterprising media types intent upon a scoop.


“One guy with Canadian [license] plates drove up, said he was Amish, and we waved him through,’’ she said. “Afterward, I thought, ‘That’s the strangest-looking Amish I ever saw.’ ’’


There were a lot of strange-looking “Amish’’ on hand.


Emergency responders throughout the county got a laugh about the “Amish’’ woman dressed all in pink, but there were other ruses as well. The Witmer volunteer told of one person driving up in a car with Delaware tags, claiming to have been summoned to work by a local bank. To verify the story, the bank was called, but no one answered. It was closed because of the shootings.


One actual Amish woman approached volunteers very upset about someone with a TV camera jumping out in front of the van in which she was riding; the cameraman was nearly run down.


And the firefighter told of one photographer, speaking English with a heavy German accent, who set up his camera on Route 896 near Georgetown United Methodist Church, the only spot where photos were permitted. Volunteers were setting out orange cones, and the firefighter happened to drop one near the photographer’s camera, which was perched low to the ground, at horse level.


The photographer kicked the cone out of the way, said the firefighter, so the firefighter returned to his truck, got out a 4-foot tall cone, and put it right in front of his camera lens.


The photographer fumed. State police looked on in amusement. Big bucks were offered for access. “I had reporters come up to me and say ‘I’ll give you $500; just get me across the line,’ ’’ said the firefighter. One local Amishman told of residents, whose homes afforded a clear view of the Georgetown cemetery where the girls were buried. being offered up to $5,000 if they would permit cameramen to set up in their yards.


“It was national news, of course,’’ the Amishman said. “But people really got into our souls these last few days.’’ And in part, said the firefighter, that might have been simply because, for the assembled media, the Amish might as well have been from Mars.


“We had news reporters tell us, ‘We’re out of our league; we don’t know anything about the Amish,’ ’’ he said. It showed when one photographer yelled at three Amishmen to turn around so he could take their picture. Not everyone took a dim view of the ink-stained or camera-toting wretches. The Bullfrog Inn in Georgetown is one of the few places in the area to get a bite to eat or a drink. Dave Lam, one of the owners, said it was jammed with media types, and he found most of them to be perfectly polite. “I think the people in the village felt very protective of the Amish, that [after the shootings] the Amish didn’t really know what was about to hit them,’’ he said. “It was a real clash of cultures.’’


Lam, who fielded calls from the Los Angeles Times and People Magazine wondering what the town was like and whether he knew any of the victims, said that the media was just doing its job, as distasteful as that might have seemed to those who would have rather been left alone. Even the Witmer firefighter agreed, to a point.


“A lot of these [media] people were just camping out,’’ he said. “It’s not as if there’s a Days Inn or a McDonald’s anywhere around.


“You’ve got to admire their tenacity.’’ "

http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/26780

 

[mickeyfan2]

Are you sure about that? I Googled the notion and only could find just the opposite. Even a site from Ohio states that the Amish do pay property taxes (Link)

The only taxes, that I could find, they are exempted from are Social Security taxes... and only if they are working within the Amish community.

The Amish don't pay SS because they made an agreement with the Federal Government that they would take care of their elderly and not take from SS. They do take care of their elderly and never use SS or medicare/medicaid.

 

[Geoff_M]

Thought you would like another perspective.

It's not really a new perspective... the articles I posted acknowledged that some members of the media didn't "behave" themselves. I quote...

Given the sheer size of the media extravaganza that cropped up in and around Nickel Mines last week -- much of it consisting of out-of-state journalists with little to no experience working among the Amish -- there was sure to be some bad behavior.

...and...

Marschka, who observed "some metros and wire photographers trying to find a way around to the perimeter of the cemetery, to get past the state police," said, "It does make me flinch that some photographers are insensitive to the point where they're possibly taking pictures that don't really matter."

The Lancaster piece highlights a handful of incidents (and probably ones that were the basis of Marchka's comments) out of the hundreds of media personnel that desended out of the blue into the 'burg. But if we judged WDW visitors by the same technique the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal used (concentrating on the extreme), then we'd think people that visited The Magic Kingdom spent the days yanking their kids around by the arms and screaming at them.

One final comment about the story... No mainstream news organization "pays" authorities for access to get a photo. I have no doubt that the particular idiots that tried that were a non-credentialed freelancers who had visions of selling their "scoop" photos/stories for big $$$ to the likes of Newsweek/Time. Staff photographers/reporters don't get more money for "better" photos/stories (they're salaried), and no stringer is going to re-coup the $500 they were supposedly willing to pay for the access. To the rest of the world people that pull such stunts are thought of as "media", to the actual members of the "working media" they are classified in the same group as "paparazzi"... and that's not a respectable group to be in. Members of the media hate the paparazzi. The reason being is that most people don't understand the difference and when stuff like this happens, people sit around their living rooms, read stories like the one above, shake their heads and grouse about the actions of "the media". To see what real photojournalists think of this type of behavior, look at this thread.


Mickeyfan2,

From what I read, it's more than an agreement. The US Supreme Court first ruled, when it was challanged by members of the Amish and others, that the initial compulsary nature of the SS program participation was unconstitutional. Congress then passed additional legislation to ammend the program to add an religious objection exemption to the SS program. But like you noted, it's a total "opt out" and you are waiving the rights to any SS benefits as a condition of not having to pay into the program. Such exemptions are extended to Medicaid/Medicare withholdings as well.

 

[fitzperry]

so if i'm wrong sorry. i actually meant it kind as a joke since there seems to be the conception of them as being poor farmers who know nothing about the ways of the world around them which isn't really the case, at least not in my area .i figured if they found a legal way to get around paying taxes that kind of shows they aren't so dumb. wasn't trying to be offensive or start a thread on amish dos and don'ts although since some in our area do have computers in their phone booths maybe if any are on the dis they can say what's what

Not to get totally off topic, but I once saw an Amish horse and buggy at a drive up ATM, but maybe it's not off topic because I was about to say that I wish I'd had my camera (I didn't know at the time that many Amish do not want to be photographed--but I'm guessing that since this guy was at an ATM, he might not have cared!) I also saw a buggy towing a little motor boat that same weekend. It just looked so incongruous.

On the subject of people believing that the Amish are naive country bumpkins, my fil has had some business dealings with the Amish over land, and the people he dealt with were quite shrewd negotiators who really knew what they were doing, quite contrary to the "English" impression of them.

 

[Kycha]

Not to get totally off topic, but I once saw an Amish horse and buggy at a drive up ATM, but maybe it's not off topic because I was about to say that I wish I'd had my camera (I didn't know at the time that many Amish do not want to be photographed--but I'm guessing that since this guy was at an ATM, he might not have cared!)

This doesn't seem unusual to me because I see it on a daily basis. The amish do use the services of banks and other businesses, so why wouldn't they use an atm.

 

[fitzperry]

This doesn't seem unusual to me because I see it on a daily basis. The amish do use the services of banks and other businesses, so why wouldn't they use an atm.

It's the incongruity in the image of a horse and buggy sitting at an ATM that I find interesting. And I thought the Amish eschewed the use of technology.