Ernest Withers - photographer & spy

[photogorilla]

<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/us/14photographer.html?partner=rss&emc=rss">Civil Rights Photographer Unmasked as Informant - NY Times</a><br>

Interesting article. I can see how some of them would feel betrayed, but as Andrew Young stated, they knew they were being "bugged" - they just didn't suspect Withers.</p>

[dave_s]

<p>I wouldn't want to condemn this guy without knowing the full story. He may have justified his actions, to himself anyway, if he was controlling the information he supplied to the feds. Perhaps he was putting a favorable spin on some things, or being selective about the information he passed on. All I'm sayin' is it may not be as simple as it looks. </p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>Once again, life imitates art. I suspect only Kurt Vonnegut could have made sense of this paradox.</p>

<blockquote>

<p><em>"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."</em></p>

</blockquote>

[c_wyatt]

<p>Wow, interesting. Thanks for the link.</p>

[stanley_rogouski]

<p>I keep thinking of the German movie "The Lives of Others."<br /><br />A dried up little Stasi agent is sent by the East German government to spy on a renowned play write and his beautiful actress wife. During the course of the movie, he falls more and more in love with the actress until, by the end, he's willing to ruin his career in order to help her husband stay out of jail.<br /><br />Looking at Whither's photos, I can't but help think that at least a part of him had a similar change of heart. On the other hand, he was with King when King was assassinated, and, instead of denouncing his ties to the FBI, he kept them secret.</p>

[c_wyatt]

<p>Stanley, I love that film, probably the best I've seen - but you've got it wrong! - the agent doesn't fall in love with the actress wife.</p>

[craigpjenkinsphotography]

<p>LMAO! Hell, if I could make a few extra bucks passing on harmless information I'd do it too. More power to him.</p>

[stanley_rogouski]

<p>How is it harmless?</p>

<p>This kind of thing makes it more difficult for honest photographers who document social movements. It associates having a camera with being a cop.</p>

[edo_t]

<p>Stanley, we must always remember that having a camera tends to be the paranoid social equivalent of being a terrorist, unless we are all double agents of course!</p>

[craigpjenkinsphotography]

<p>Stanley, the way I read this the FBI did not get any useful information. For all practical purposes this is like spying on a church - The FBI were informed of the next sermon before it was officially announced but what good does it do them? It appears to me Mr. Withers fed the FBI correct and accurate but otherwise useless information, for personal gain. Seems like the FBI confused the accuracy of Mr. Withers information with the overall quality or usefulness of this information. (Another example of government waste?) Good for him. I wish I could find myself a deep-pocket chump like that. I am not out looking to con anyone and I doubt Mr. Withers was either - But when opportunity knocks... open the door.</p>

[stanley_rogouski]

<p>Craig. You're basically saying "if you're not doing anything wrong you've got nothing to hide."</p>

<p>Couldn't you use that same rationalization for the East German police state.</p>

<p>The Stasi was spying on the majority of the East German people. Since only a tiny minority of the East German people were CIA agents, Neo Nazis or gangsters, that meant the vast majority of people the Stasi were watching were innocent people who "had nothing to hide."</p>

<p>So more power to the people who signed up to watch their neighbors, right?</p>

<p>I don't buy it. The FBI had been harassing King for years. Hoover was obsessed with the Civil Rights movement. There was also an extended period of time where Hoover instructed his agents not to warn King about death threats.</p>

<p>This was not only a betrayal, it's a sobering thought for Americans who actually believe they live in a "free country."<br>

<br /><br />Hoover denied the existence of organized crime in the 1950s. Every dollar that went to scam artists like Whithers (if indeed he was only a scam artist) was another dollar of your tax money not being used to track down murderers, rapists, and gangsters.</p>

<p>It just seems peculiarly sinister to me that in the Soviet Union nobody had any delusions that the KGB was anything but the secret police. But in the United States we've been brainwashed to think our own secret police is a genuine police force dedicated to fighting crime.</p>

[craigpjenkinsphotography]

<p>That is a huge leap, Stanley. Misuse of government powers, corruption, and the like is global. I go through life with both eyes wide open so don't count me in with your "Brainwashed" analogy. And in case you missed it, today is Constitution Day. The United States Constitution is presently the oldest constitution in practice. If the former East Germany had the 2nd Amendment then they would not have become a police state. Its a fine line between a citizen and a subject with a clear difference between the sides. If not for our Constitutional rights then King & Withers would have been jailed or executed long before gaining any public recognition. Freedom is not free and not to be squandered on those who do not cherish it. For every combatant keeping American citizens free there are those nameless & faceless citizens on the home front exercising their Rights to keep the government in check. It does not matter which political party is in power or which party a protester champions as long as citizens exercise the Constitution the checks and balances will keep our government and corruption under control. People like Hoover will always appear in government and making decisions that the power of hindsight will inevitably call into question. Factor in the 'Communist menace' scaremongering and witch-hunts of the era with compounded generations of ignorant racist doctrine and it is no wonder King suffered FBI intimidation. The fact that Withers made some money from the FBI during this era appear to be the coup de grâce on them.</p>

[colin carron]

<p>This sort of thing happens a fair bit and I'm not sure whether it should be classed as treachery or not. All popular movements have the potential for good but also the potential for bad. If the authorities are informed of what an insider considers the bad bits of his movement then he maybe increases the chance of the good bits prevailing.</p>

<p>Here in the UK several top union leaders have been revealed as passing information to MI5 and other union leaders passed information the other way to the KGB. They probably would all have said (they are all deceased) that they were acting out of the highest motives.</p>

<p>In the end we probably all sleep sounder in our beds when we know more about 'the enemy' so you could say that in peacetime at least this sort of thing helps lower the temperature and make tings easier.</p>

[Emmanuel Enyinwa]

<p>Craig, that is actually beside the point. I don't buy "coincidences" and "mistakes". I don't think the FBI "mistakenly" "forgot" to blank out Withers' name, but simply deliberately outed him because he is no longer useful, same way they shot MLK because he was no longer useful, but was straying to the Malcolm X camp by 1968.<br>

The FBI wouldn't use Withers unless they THOUGHT he was giving them useful information. Someone like him is extremely dangerous since he has access that others would not, and we are only seeing those pictures of his THEY and him allowed to be published. He must have documented the presence in those rallies and meetings of sooooo many important people who would have no idea that a spy was in their midst, pictures we have never even seen, but were important to the FBI. That Mr. Withers, one of my most revered people, and, along with Gene Smith and Gordon Banks, one of the reasons I picked up a camera was a dirty rat is highly disheartening, especially since BOTH Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were both assassinated by the proverbial "lone nut" that does ALL the dirty political work in this country.<br>

Oddly enough, to give the devil his due, I actually admired Withers' entertainment pictures--the young Elvis Pressly pulling his Jim Carey In Living Color routine at the Memphis Hippodrome, the young Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin, the young Ike Turner and Isaac Hayes, B B King and the like. But, I always assumed that those pictures resonated with audiences because Withers had a conscience, but, if Pablo Picaso could paint "Guernica" while at the same time painting several disturbing images that would get him arrested today for child porn, and Woody Allen can direct Hannah and Her Sisters while masturbating to pictures of his children, can one still continue to believe there is any link to a great artist and our concept of conscience?</p>

[joe_taylor5]

<p>I find it odd that the FBI would be spying on MLK to start with. He was so public about what he was doing he had nothing to hide. There were many more dangerous people to keep an eye on. Before I would pass judgment on Withers I would like to read exactly what he told the FBI. But then the FBI seems to see the boogie man everywhere and not see the real bad players, the 911 group comes to mind right off. The whole thing is screwed up.</p>