Obama’s photographer is now an asset for Hillary
For nearly eight years, President Obama’s official White House photographer has been releasing behind-the-scenes pictures that unfailingly make his boss look good. Now, Pete Souza’s work is helping another Democrat polish their image: Hillary Clinton.
Obama’s video endorsement of Clinton includes at least seven still photographs that Yahoo News identified as having been taken by Souza. They show Obama and Clinton, his former secretary of state, in locales from the White House Situation Room to the Wat Pho Royal Monastery in Bangkok, Thailand. They are exquisitely shot press releases in image form.
There’s no evidence that using the photos this way is illegal or improper. The Clinton campaign doesn’t even have to pay for the pictures, because technically they are in the public domain. It’s just interesting to see how the White House message machine’s output could benefit Obama’s designated political heir.
Slideshow: Obama’s photographer is now an asset for Hillary
Their use also highlights how Obama is the first two-term president in recent history to be seen as an electoral asset by his party’s likely nominee. Sen. John McCain mostly shunned George W. Bush in 2008, and then-Vice President Al Gore kept Bill Clinton at arm’s length in 2000.
On the White House Flickr page, each photograph bears a disclaimer that says the photos “may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.”
Yahoo News asked the White House for its ground rules covering politicians’ use of pictures taken by official Obama photographers. Could Clinton use them in a mailer? Could presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump?
“White House photos that have been placed into the public domain are free for use for anyone, consistent with White House usage policy,” an official said.
Specifically, “the White House does not permit anyone — including political candidates — to use photos in promotional materials, to fundraise, or to imply endorsement where such endorsement does not exist,” the official said.
It was OK to use them in the video because Obama was actually endorsing Clinton, the official said.
As for Trump, Republicans have been using Souza photos for years in attack ads, the official said. There’s nothing the White House can do about it, because the pictures are in the public domain.
