Poynter.org has published a discussion of the practice of staging "re-enacted" news photographs of U.S. presidential addresses and press conferences. The piece was prompted by President Obama's news conference last Sunday night announcing the killing of Osama Bin Laden where Obama re-enacted his entrance and the first 30 seconds of his speech for the benefit of photojournalists.

This has been standard practice for more than 20 years, according to veteran White House photographers interviewed by Al Tompkins of Poynter. Because noise from their cameras would be audible, perhaps distractingly so, on the televised address, still photographers are forbidden from shooting during live presidential speeches and press conferences. Short sections of the address are subsequently "re-enacted" to allow the photographers to make still pictures. In the article, Poynter calls for this practice to be ended.