Scalia while allegedly hand gesturing uttered "vaffanculo!"

[TaleWgnDg]

Church fires photographer over Scalia picture: Freelancer pays for ‘right thing’

by Jessica Heslam, Boston Herald, Boston, Massachusetts
Friday, March 31, 2006 - Updated: 01:24 PM EST

A freelance photographer has been fired by the Archdiocese of Boston’s newspaper for releasing a picture of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia making a controversial gesture in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on Sunday.


Antonin Scalia gestures inside the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston, Massachusetts
after the "Red Mass" that he attended
(Boston Herald exclusive photo by Peter A. Smith)

Peter Smith, who had freelanced for The Pilot newspaper for a decade, lost the job yesterday after the Herald ran his photo on its front page yesterday, Thursday, March 31, 2006). Smith said he has no regrets about releasing it.

“I did the right thing. I did the ethical thing,” said Smith, 51, an assistant photojournalism professor at Boston University.

Smith snapped the photo of Scalia flicking his hand under his chin after a Herald reporter asked the conservative jurist his response to people who question his impartiality on matters of church and state.

. . . snip . . .

The weekly Catholic newspaper made a “journalistic decision” not to run or release the photo, said Archdiocese spokesman Terry Donilon. “Because he breached that trust with the editor, we will no longer engage his services as a freelance photographer,” Donilon said.

“It’s nothing personal,” added Pilot editor Antonio Enrique. “I need to try and find people I can trust.”

While news outlets from across the country sought Smith’s photo yesterday, the archdiocese said there’s no proof that Scalia uttered an obsenity(sic) in the church. Smith said Scalia said, “To my critics, I say, ‘Vaffanculo,’ ” while making the gesture. That’s Italian for (expletive) you. “It was pretty clear,” Smith said yesterday. A Herald reporter who was nearby did not hear that utterance.

. . . snip . . .

. . . more at . . . http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=132932

(bold-faced type emphasis and hyperlinks added by TaleWgnDg)

Caveat: The Pilot cannot "fire" a free-lance reporter since the photographer/reporter isn't an employee. Just to set the record straight. It simply may not choose to use the photographer/reporter's "free lance" services any longer if it so wishes which evidently is the case here.

1.) For more on this "bad boy" on-going Boston saga of our SCOTUS associate justice including Justice Scalia's letter to the editor (LTTE) that he FAX'd to the Boston Herald, please see this DU LBT thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2195687&mesg_id=2195721


Scalia allegedly stated, “To my critics, I say, ‘Vaffanculo,’ ” while making the gesture!

2.) For Scalia's "bad boy" tactics in Switzerland earlier this month, please go to this DU thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=221&topic_id=31334&mesg_id=31365
(which includes an hyperlink to a video stream of his lecture, his following Q&A, and his brief interview . . . tis a rather lengthly stream but worth every patient effort particularly the Q&A where Scalia *dumps* for all the world to see)

[merbex]

1. Sometimes I feel like Alice in Wonderland where down is up and up

is down

Before 2000 can you imagine any member of the SCOTUS pulling a stunt like this????

And then instead of OUTRAGE regarding his disgraceful behavior, the response so far??.....terminating any future employment by the photographer who caught the disgraceful behavior OF A UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT JUSTICE

Bizarro world is the Boston Catholic Archdiosese and the entitled world of Antonin Scalia

[TaleWgnDg]

3. The Roman Catholic Church hasn't, let's say, been putting

The Roman Catholic Church hasn't, let's say, been putting it's best foot forward. I agree, yes. And, that's not merely in the Boston Archdiocese where it's been touted (falsely) that the sexual molestation of children by priests began. Instead, it's worldwide. And, been on-going for a very long time. The Holy See has attempted to deflect by blamimg the press and to portray us (in Boston) as the heavies in all of this, as did Rick Santorum too.

[TaleWgnDg]

2. unreal, freakin unreal . . . decorum of a sitting SCOTUS justice . . .

Front page of Boston Herald, Boston's daily tabloid newspaper,
Thursday, March 30, 2006



Front page of Boston Herald, Boston's daily tabloid newspaper,
Friday, March 31, 2006

This "bad boy Nino" saga in Boston has been on-going since Sunday's "Red Mass" which Scalia attended and received Holy Communion then was caught in this act while still inside the Holy Cross Cathedral, Boston, Massachusetts. Word has it that Boston's Roman Catholics, particularly Italian-Americans, are quite displeased w/ Scalia's lack of decorum inside a church as well as that of a sitting SCOTUS justice.

BTW, anybody know of the history of the "Red Mass?" Check out that imbedded hyperlink if curious. The author of that article doesn't pull any punches: "It is obvious that the purpose of the Red Mass and the St. Thomas More Society is not only to promote the Red Mass as a Catholic cultural event in the United States, but also make papal decisions influence the law of the land."

[Jim Warren]

4. -:-

:P