Photo of child in dirty bathwater prompts concern at coal mine hearing [View all]

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Last edited Thu Jun 7, 2012, 07:16 AM - Edit history (2)

Source: The Denver Post via Charleston Daily Mail

WASHINGTON - An award-winning coal-mining activist was questioned for 45 minutes by police on suspicion of child pornography after U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn's energy and mineral resources subcommittee decided a photo she submitted of a child in foul bathwater was inappropriate.

Maria Gunnoe of West Virginia had been invited by Lamborn - a Colorado Springs Republican and the subcommittee's chairman - to testify at his hearing Friday on the Spruce Coal Mine in her state. It was the fourth time Gunnoe had been in front of the committee and the second time she had been there at the behest of Lamborn.

Gunnoe, a grandmother, said that when she has spoken to the committee previously, she never felt as if members made eye contact, so she decided to bring a photo by a freelance photojournalist of a child taking a bath in dirty water - allegedly polluted by coal mining - to put up on the panels above her head.

(...)

The photo by award-winning photographer Katie Falkenberg was part of a photo essay about the effects of mountaintop removal coal mining. It is taken from above a 5-year-old in West Virginia bathing in murky orange water. The child's face is not identifiable, and Falkenberg says the parents were in the room when the photo was taken and granted permission for the photo to be used at the hearing.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.com/News/201206060318

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More from the Charleston Gazette's 6/5 story:
“His words were, ‘The committee said that this photo was suggestive of child pornography,’” said Gunnoe, who works with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.

(...)

“That committee just didn’t want that photo displayed for people to see,” said Gunnoe. “They don’t want people to know that our children have to bathe in that water or not at all.”

(...)
Gunnoe, a 44-year-old grandmother, said she was deeply offended by the suggestions she would even submit something harmful to children.

“That is character assassination,” Gunnoe said.

http://www.gazette.com/articles/photo-139763-water-picture.html#ixzz1x65auUbu
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Meanwhile, Lamborn and the GOP stand by their smear:
http://www.vivacolorado.com/noticias/ci_20800163/lamborn-says-no-apology-needed-child-porn-interrogation