Jill Greenberg was hired to photograph John McCain for a cover of Atlantic Magazine. But she also used deliberately unflattering lighting known to anyone who’s held a flashlight to their chin. McCain’s handlers weren’t “sophisticated” enough to know it would make their candidate look horrific. Now Greenberg is in hot water with editor types who lament her exploitation of the gentleman’s agreement that rules the publishing world.

Do these editors hear themselves laud the principles which ensure they are never more than corporate PR shills? And isn’t that putting it delicately? These offended prigs are media whores, slapping colleagues who aren’t sucking up enough. These are the courtiers who won’t tell the emperor he has no clothes and who offer their guarantees that any photograph they take will not reveal it either.

Why should cold-hearted, dishonest, politicians like John McCain not have to be wary of critical journalism, instead of being able to count on the entire industry to collude with their deceitful imagery? Greenberg captured very telling stills of the rapacious, senile GOP Lugosi. So what if she wants to Photoshop juvenile mockeries of him on her website? Hopefully she’ll take a crack at Sarah Bride-of-FrankenCain too.