Photojournalist Brings Sanity To USPS Drop Box Debate After Reuters Tweets Misleading Photo Sans Context

AP featured image — *A customer wears a mask as he drops mail into a curbside mail collection box in Los Angeles Monday, Aug. 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)*

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With Democrats and the mainstream media working hand in hand to promote baseless conspiracy theories about how President Trump is allegedly using the United States Postal Service to steal the presidential election, it’s a refreshing change to see one of their fellow journalists taking them to task for publishing misleading information that not only needlessly scares people but that also further erodes trust in the media.

Photojournalist Gary He took to the Twitter machine Monday after seeing the “Reuters Pictures” Twitter account publish a photo of a stack of USPS drop boxes without providing critical context.

Here’s the photo:

United States Postal Service (USPS) mailboxes are seen stacked in an industrial lot in Hartford, Wisconsin. More photos of the day: https://t.co/EaGPKaJJAn 📷 @brian_photog pic.twitter.com/pVRRrFo4nu

— Reuters Pictures (@reuterspictures) August 17, 2020

Mr. He did not mince words in a must-read thread blasting Reuters and other news outlets who have published similar photos without doing what real journalists are supposed to do in getting the backstory on what they’re “reporting” before they, ya know, actually report on it:

OK so everyone has seen the "viral" photo going around of the piles of mailboxes in Wisconsin being used as evidence that Trump is sabotaging USPS. Problem is, they have been there for years: Hartford Finishing Inc. powder coats and refurbishes the old mailboxes. (1/8) pic.twitter.com/HQpAprWxoK

— Gary He (@garyhe) August 17, 2020

He did what Reuters should have done, first by making a phone call and then doing a Google Maps search:

When I called up Hartford Finishing, Inc., a woman on the phone confirmed that they have a government contract for the mailbox refurbishing and that they "get them from all over and make them look good again" (2/8)

— Gary He (@garyhe) August 17, 2020

This is where I have to give some tough love to my friends at @reuterspictures. They sent a staff photog to these mailboxes. And then posted them to the wire labeling the site of the mailboxes as just an "industrial lot" when context is our entire job as journalists. (3/8) pic.twitter.com/FFTPODFXFR

— Gary He (@garyhe) August 17, 2020

To find this location on Google, you have to search for "Hartford Finishing". It's a side road, not like you can spot the mailboxes from a highway. The sign for the business is 20 feet away from the mailboxes. To omit all this from the caption is journalistic malpractice. (4/8) pic.twitter.com/DIvUTj9urb

— Gary He (@garyhe) August 17, 2020

Let me be clear: the @reuterspictures photos are very good. And as stock art for "pile of mailboxes", it works. But @Reuters is one of the best news organizations in the world. And telling the full story and context is everything. This is an intentional omission. (5/8)

— Gary He (@garyhe) August 17, 2020

Especially since @Reuters is a wire service, other news orgs are going to use these pictures as evidence of Trump tampering with the USPS. When it's later revealed that it was just a place where mailboxes get refurbished, trust in news organizations is further eroded. (6/8)

— Gary He (@garyhe) August 17, 2020

Is having a photo go viral worth it if it's at the expense of journalistic integrity?? I think at the very least my friends at @reuterspictures should issue a caption correction for every single one of these frames, and alert editors that have used them out of context. (7/8)

— Gary He (@garyhe) August 17, 2020

For the non journalists out there: I get it, you're anxious about the election. And maybe there ARE shenanigans going on! But this is the wrong way to conduct journalism and why you don't run stories based on random info on social media without vetting the hell out of it. (8/8)

— Gary He (@garyhe) August 17, 2020

Context matters. Integrity matters. Period.

I don’t have much to add here, except to say that this is the second time in a month that I’ve seen solid evidence that there are journalists left out there who simply want to report the news straight up rather than either make themselves part of the story or otherwise spin it to fit Democrat/media-driven narratives about Republicans.

Again, a refreshing thing to see. Too bad there’s not much more of it.

(Hat tip: Twitchy)