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"… Sontag not only challenges the compassion fatigue thesis; she questions the notion of the CNN effect. With regard to inaction in Bosnia despite the steady stream of images of ethnic cleansing that made their way out of Sarajevo, Sontag argues that people didn't turn off because they were either overwhelmed by their quantity or anaesthetized by their quality. Rather, they switched off because American and European leaders proclaimed it was an intractable and irresolvable situation. The political context into which the pictures were being inserted was already set, with military intervention not an option, and no amount of horrific photographs was going to change that….… In the Iraq war of 2003 imagery was central to the conflict and often the subject of conflict itself. In this context, the Pentagon's strategy of "embedding" reporters and their camera crews with fighting units, and having them operate at the behest of that unit, continues the long-running tradition of a close relationship between the media and the military…. Given this, Sontag is perhaps surprisingly sanguine about the genuineness of war photography in the contemporary period. While recognizing that many of the now iconic combat images of the pre-Vietnam period were staged, she sees Vietnam as a watershed such that "the practice of inventing dramatic news pictures, staging them for the camera, seems on its way to becoming a lost art." Insofar as Sontag is referring to the likelihood of individual photographers seeking to deceive, she may be right. There was, however, at least one notable instance in Iraq of digital manipulation. This resulted in the Los Angeles Times sacking award-winning staff photographer Brian Walski, whose altered image of a British soldier in Basra (he had combined two photos into one to improve marginally composition) was used on the paper's front page….… What is most striking about the embedded journalists' coverage of the Iraq war is the way in which the images of the conflict produced by the allies' media was so relatively clean, being largely devoid of the dead bodies that mark a major conflict. In this outcome, the media is a willing accomplice…."

A review essay on a book by Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others (New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2003).

Charitable choice has focused policy attention on the oft-neglected universe of faithrelated organizations but not necessarily on the corners of that universe that ought to matter most or the questions that are most important. We compare local welfare reform initiatives of eight faith-related organizations to suggest how the debate might be constructively reframed. The evidence (a) argues for putting less focus on congregations as contractors and more attention to their role as sites and resources for church-based coalitions and organizing networks; (b) contradicts a simplified understanding of faithrelated organizations as agents for "instilling virtues and character in the poor," recognizing that many give equal or greater weight to convincing congregations to fulfill their social obligations; and (c) counters the view that the key challenges are legal or regulatory, instead drawing attention to the difficult local work of integrating the resources of faith-related organizations with other public, private, and voluntary organizations.

AbstractLeaders of nonprofit organizations face a particular bind in responding to the demands for results‐based accountability. If they focus only on the project‐level outcomes over which they have the most control or for which indicators are readily available, they risk default on the larger question of accountability to publicly valued goals. On the other hand, if they try to demonstrate the impact of their particular projects on communitywide outcomes, they risk taking credit inappropriately or shouldering the blame for indicators beyond their control. Here, I present findings from a research project, conducted in collaboration with economic development organizations on the north coast of California, that explored the practical demands and dynamics associated with this paradox. The key challenges are more civic and political than technical.