Photo shoot for smiling janitor

I would first like to applaud the Argus for their coverage of the Wesleyan janitor’s struggle with the ABM management over the use of their vacation days (Janitors clash with ABM management, 1/31/06). As an organizer of the Wesleyan ESL program that offers English classes to these janitors, I have become intimately connected with their workplace issues, the current “clash” being a major issue for them.

I am not writing this Wespeak to critique or dispute the article, which was accurate and well-written, but to call attention to the very poor journalism that was exhibited with the use of the photo that accompanied the article. The photo is of a smiling Rich Chea, posing next to some cleaning supplies in a bathroom. There are several problems with this: one, Rich Chea is a Wesleyan employee, and not at all involved with the clash with ABM. Two, by attaching his photo to such an article, the Argus is putting Mr. Chea in a position where his job could be in jeopardy, even though he has absolutely no connection to the struggle. Three, why is a photo of a smiling janitor even necessary for this article? A more useful and provocative photo could have been taken at the meeting with ABM (that the author of the article attended) and could have shown the janitors’ organization and the support of Wesleyan students at the meeting. The journalist could have easily taken that photo himself.

To me, the misuse of this photo can tell us several things: In the first place, there is insufficient communication between the different departments of the Argus. If the news department had communicated with the photo department and given the photographer more information than simply “go take a photo of some janitor,” this mix-up could have been avoided. More importantly, the Argus doesn’t care about the job security of the janitors. If they did, they would know to be more careful with news that concerns real people’s jobs.

Just a heads up—this kind of journalism could really get you into trouble. You might want to apologize to Mr. Chea.