The Purloined Photo

By MICHAEL SCHENKLER

I always wanted to use the word "purloined" in print. The poetry of the phrase, THE PURLOINED PHOTO, may be more interesting than this item. Obviously, it’s borrowed from the Edgar Allen Poe tale scribed in 1845, The Purloined Letter. (Purloin, a verb meaning to steal can be traced back to the mid-14th century when it was borrowed through the Anglo–French, purloiner, to remove.) Poe’s bizarre, mysterious mind was always on the edge and his use of language, musical to my tone-deaf ears. But "purloined photo," picture it — who could ask for anything more?

This Dee Richard photo of Ackerman opponent Doc Elkowitz and wife flanking Congressman Gary Ackerman and Hillary Clinton at an Ackerman fundraiser is at the center of a mystery. The Purloined Photo

However, Edgar Allen Poe has nothing to do with what I write about, except, maybe it’s all just a little bit bizarre, and it is a mystery.

The photo in question was taken (shot, not stolen) by Dee Richard, a.k.a. the Tribpixie and is printed above. It was taken at Leonard’s of Great Neck at a November fundraiser for Congressman Gary Ackerman. Hillary Clinton — then an undeclared Senatorial candidate — was the guest of honor and Gary and Hillary are flanked by Dr. and Mrs. Elkowitz.

Now here’s what’s interesting about who’s smiling with whom. Doc Elkowitz is now Ackerman’s Republican opponent. That’s right, last November, Doc and the Mrs. show up at the funder to schmooze with Gary and friends and meet Hillary. Then, last month, Doc seeks and is given the Republican line to run against Ackerman. Doc’s not new to the game. He previously opposed Ackerman as the Right-to-Life candidate.

I asked Dee Richard, the Trib photographer, to go to the Ackerman fundraiser basically to get a picture of my 11-year-old daughter Allison with Hillary. I already met (and had a picture taken with the first lady — the Prez, too) and Lil claimed not to be star-struck (she really wanted a pic, but denied it). Well, Dee was there shooting up a storm. Got Allison, Lil, my niece Debbie, myself, Gary and Hillary — thanx, Dee — and lots of others. Dee you see is the preeminent political photographer in Queens. Her Tribpix page is a weekly who’s who in Queens — emphasis on politics. Dee and I share a love of the political game and enjoy picking the Tribpix photos weekly.

Here comes the mystery, and I’ll leave you to play Sherlock Holmes from the evidence at hand.

So Dee photographed Doc and Mrs. Elkowitz with Gary and Hillary last November. The calendar moves forward to last Tuesday night (July 11). I don’t know what prompted Dee to review her old pics but she saw the Elkowitz photo shown on this page and put it in her pocketbook to show it off at a fundraiser for Republican State Senator Frank Padavan. Dee rightfully thought it was a good story that Doc came to Ackerman’s fundraiser and that Doc who espouses things far right of political center came to meet and smile with Hillary, the darling of the liberals. Hmmm!

At Tuesday’s funder in Papazzio’s in Bayside (marvelous place, try it and tell Dominic I sent you), Dee sits down with political columnist Arthur Nitzburg, his wife Anne and Padavan to chat. The Queens political circle is small, and such a grouping is not unlikely for a couple of minutes.

I like Nitzburg. He writes for another Queens weekly. Some of his stuff is pretty good. Some is way off base. But, I like to read about political hoohahs.

I really don’t know him well enough not to like him. And, you see, David Fred Roth, the Bayside philanthropist who is the president of the Queens Salvation Army, told me that Arthur encouraged my selection as the Salvation Army’s honoree last year. It was an honor I gratefully shared with dear friend Queens Board of Education member Terri Thomson — remember her, she’ll come back in a later item. Well thanks, Arthur — you can’t be all bad.

So Tuesday night, Dee shows Arthur, Anne and Frank the photo. They all were interested, they all got a kick out of how silly it made Elkowitz seem, Arthur loved the picture and asked, "Can I have it," Dee recalls. She smiled, said no and put it back in her pocketbook.

The next day, Arthur calls Dee and says he pitched the photo and story as an op-ed piece to Newsday. They liked the idea, and Arthur would like to use the photo. It seems Newsday wanted the photo in order to pay Nitzburg for his piece.

So Dee shows up at my office with her pocketbook from the night before to ask me if I would approve her turning over the photo to Arthur to sell to Newsday, for which she would receive a fee and photo credit and Arthur then could sell his piece to Newsday. Dee, as the Trib photographer, was doing the right thing in seeking my approval before selling anything to another newspaper.

Nitzburg had already called Ackerman to lobby him to get me to approve of it all. Now, I liked the story and spin about Elkowitz; and the idea really belonged to Dee, and not to Arthur. Gary — according to what Arthur told Dee — wanted to see the piece in Newsday and I could have really lived without the photo in my column. Once more, I was glad to see Dee getting photo credit from a daily, so, I didn’t object. "Sure, Dee, if you want to, give it to Arthur."

Only Dee didn’t have the photo.

She looked in her pocketbook from the night before and the photo was gone. Someone had lifted it. Filched it. Purloined the photo.

Who could it be?

Dee felt she knew and called Arthur to demand it back.

He denied having it.

I reached out for the Newsday editors to let them know the photo was purloined and that it belonged to Dee. Tamara Hartman, the Tribune editor reached out to Nitzburg’s other newspaper to inform them of the purloined photo and that they should not run it if they received it.

Now, Nitzburg still wanted to sell his story to Newsday.

Dee and I wanted the photo back.

By the end of Wednesday, the small world involved, knew the photo was Dee’s — it had her photo credit on the back — and her permission was needed before anyone could use it. However, in this day of scanners, it’s real easy to reproduce photos.

Nitzburg continued to lobby, calling Dee, Ackerman, Newsday, Tamara and others.

Thursday morning, Dee wakes up, goes to her car and finds an envelope under the windshield wiper. The Purloined Photo was returned.

Dee comes to the office, hands it to me and says, do what you want with it. Dee and I agree that based on his questionable role in the disappearance of the photo, Arthur should not profit — ego or dollar wise. Basically, we decided, not to let Nitzburg benefit from the photo.

On Friday (7/14) Nitzburg contacted our editor, Tamara lobbied and threatened. He insisted he did not take the photo and wouldn’t do such a thing. He suggested that State Senator Frank Padavan might have taken it in order to help Republican Elkowitz. Then he said he’d sue me if I tried to prevent him from writing for Newsday.

That’s all it took. I respond to bullies in one way. The Newsday editor had emailed me asking whether Dee’s photo would be available to them. I responded: not for use with Nitzburg’s writing.

The photo and its story is Dee’s.

This story of the purloining is the story of journalistic ethics and of someone who has lost their way or maybe never knew write from wrong.

Vile and Ugly

Same topic: Newspapers and columnists, only this one is not so frivolous.

This is a story of a vile and ugly columnist and an unapologetic hateful newspaper that prints vile and ugly columns. Fortunately, the newspaper is insignificant. But small people and small papers that spread hate are dangerous. Such is the case of the Queens Ledger/Glendale Register, its collection of small sister papers, and its columnist Frank Borzellieri.

The columnist, a member of community school board 24, has in the past spewed forth with some of the vilest racist pronouncements this borough has ever heard. His anti-immigrant, anti-minority positions are the stuff hate groups thrive upon. His words have never belonged in a Queens community newspaper but in a meeting of hooded cowards.

However, I believe in the first amendment and as hateful as those words may be, Publisher Walter Sanchez has a right to print them.

The columnist is responsible for the hate he writes. Publisher Walter Sanchez is responsible for the hate he prints.

Two weeks ago, Borzellieri and Sanchez went too far. They likened Queens Board of Education member Terri Thomson to Adolph Hitler. Terri, who is my friend, has a record that needs no defense. The columnist and his sick ideas on education do not entitle him to personal attacks on fine public servants like Terri. He can disagree with her and we always encourage such dialogue. But hateful, vile and disgusting attacks don’t fly here.

I’m not surprised at the columnist; he is vile.

I’m appalled at Publisher Sanchez.

Some sixteen years ago or so, I taught Walter what this publishing business was all about. He bought his way into the industry from a bowling alley and needed guidance. I gave it to him in his early days.

Perhaps I didn’t do a good job teaching, or he didn’t do a good job learning or he has just lost his way. Walter’s papers printed the attack on Terri. Walter’s papers likened her to Hitler.

Then, last week, after printing the hateful, hurtful column, an unsigned piece on the edit page declared, "Columnist Needs A Break." Apparently reacting to the uproar caused by the columnist’s twisted words, Walter backed off a little.

Walter’s edit said that the columnist, "made no mention as to why he is comparing Teri (sic) to Hitler (the infamous dictator), why he says she is void of any intellectual substance . . ."

Thank you Walter, we know who Hitler was.

Your parenthetical description leads me to believe you don’t.

He is the man that murdered six million. He killed members of my family. He imprisoned my in-laws in concentration camps for six years, killing their parents.

Your willingness to print the initial column and matter-of-fact description of Adolph Hitler indicates your total insensitivity to the hate you print and the pain you cause.

You don’t apologize for printing hate; you call it, "latitude." Then joke that your columnist, "might have confused latitude with altitude, and with altitude, oxygen fails to get to the creative juices in the brain."

Then you announce that you are keeping the columnist "out of the paper for a few weeks." You encourage people to write in with their opinion to help you decide on the writer’s future with your paper.

Maybe you’ll get more letters from racists full of hate than from people of love and understanding. Maybe they, and you, like Adolph Hitler. Maybe racism and hate is for you and your writers.

If I were a reader, I wouldn’t write to you. I’d stop reading your newspaper.

Publishing a newspaper is not a democratic process. It is a responsibility.

You cannot hide behind freedom of the press. You are responsible for what you print. You are responsible for the hate. You are responsible for hurting Terri Thomson. You are responsible for the hurt you caused from the casual reference to Adolph Hitler. You are responsible for the vile and disgusting things that your columnist writes.

You have failed as a publisher.

And in my book, you have failed as a human being.

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Michael Schenkler can be reached at: MSchenkler@queenspress.com