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'Herald' Publishes Scalia 'Obscene Gesture' Photo Editor And Publisher | March 31 2006 The Boston Herald is sticking to its guns in holding that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia did, indeed, make an obscene gesture to the press on Sunday after attending mass in that city. It also obtained and published a photo of Scalia making the gesture on its front page today. Scalia had asked the photographer at the time not to publish the picture. “It’s inaccurate and deceptive of him to say there was no vulgarity in the moment,” Peter Smith, a Boston University assistant photojournalism professor who took the shot, told the Herald. Scalia sent a widely-publicized letter to the editor of the Herald this week denying there was anything obscene about the gesture and charging that staffers there had watched too much of "The Sopranos." But the photographer said the newspaper “got the story right.” He added, according to the Herald, that the jurist “immediately knew he’d made a mistake, and said, ‘You’re not going to print that, are you?’ ” A Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said Scalia "has no further comment." Smith was working as a freelance photographer for the Boston archdiocese’s weekly newspaper. Herald reporter Laurel J. Sweet had asked the justice after mass how he responds to critics who might question his impartiality as a judge given his public worship. Smith said for today's paper: “The judge paused for a second, then looked directly into my lens and said, ‘To my critics, I say, Vaffanculo,' punctuating the comment by flicking his right hand out from under his chin." The Italian phrase, according to the Herald, means “(expletive) you.” Sweet confirms Smith’s account, but said she did not hear Scalia utter the obscenity. The Herald also presents today interviews with several "Sopranos" actors, who agree that the gesture was obscene, or at least highly disrespectful. --------------------------------------------------- Please help our fight against the New World Order by giving a donation. As bandwidth costs increase, the only way we can stay online and expand is with your support. Please consider giving a monthly or one-off donation for whatever you can afford. You can pay securely by either credit card or Paypal. Click here to donate. |
