Not during the prayer. I SAID, not during...

Photojournalists get such a bad rap.

They're not paparazzi. They're not vampires. They do have souls.

No, not all of them behave scrupulously at all times.

But do they deserve to be kicked?

Javier Manzano of the Rocky Mountain News was doing his job in the Colorado capitol building last week, shooting routine images of a swearing-in ceremony. He was unceremoniously stopped in the process.

News media across the nation — including the New York Times — have put the spotlight on Manzano and his decision to ignore warnings to cease shooting and be reverent.

My experience in journalism, and with journalists, convinces me that most really do care about the civic life they cover and the reality (even the sanctity) of the moment. Their job is to tell the story — official and unofficial — whenever it comes in front of their lens. If they're good, they're ready when the real story emerges from layers of spin and hype that glosses so much of what poses as news today.

It shouldn't surprise working journalists that Manzano got down on the floor in front of Rep. Douglas Bruce and House Speaker Andrew Romanoff and shot a frame or two of Bruce in prayer (maybe especially after Bruce said to go away.)

Bruce's decision to kick Manzano in the knee when he heard the camera shutter was one that might symbolize all the pent-up frustration that politicians feel toward journalists who won't color within the lines. Journalists are so darn ubiquitous.

Manzano declined comment after the photo session.

News coverage of this event has centered on both Manzano and Bruce — presumably because there's a sympathetic audience for both. My sympathies are with both, but for different reasons.

One reason Manzano wouldn't back off, I think, is that Manzano got the fact that prayer — for all its shallowness in socio-political life — is still part of the civic process. Actually, a lot of us believe it ought to be even more part of the process (albeit in private, in an earnest seeking of God for wisdom.)

Bruce was part of a political process that deserves public scrutiny. But he'd made it all the more compelling by jerking the state legislature around to do this swearing-in thing just when he wanted it — even if it was inconvenient for the whole.

What Manzano did, though, by shooting images of a praying man when that man said not to (maybe he asked nicely, the reports don't make that clear) is to promote a stereotype of photojournalists as blood-sucking creatures who disdain the life of the Spirit (at least that's what those who took a glance without really reading about it would conclude. And we live in a nation of cynical media glancers.)

I don't think Manzano should have backed off. But there are ways to do one's job so everybody wins. Maybe impossible here, but I suggest it's worth pursuing.

My sympathies are with Bruce because he's now made a name for himself as a guy who not only doesn't understand journalism within the democratic experience and socio-political life, he's also shown how much he doesn't grasp the place of prayer in that mix.

All of us lose it — occasionally in front of a bunch of people.

What's sad is that this guy exploded not only during prayer, but in front of cameras.

Jesus got angry at people who made His Father's house (the temple in Jerusalem), a place He called a house of prayer, into a circus of greed and commodification. But He didn't attack during prayer. When Jesus prayed, he prayed. When He took people to task, He waited until he could look them in the eye and make the lesson clear — sometimes so profoundly that they'd think about it for years afterward.

Douglas Bruce has labeled himself in a way that will make him a caricature of public servants for quite a while. And he's hurt the reputation of those who really do make prayer part of their calling to serve a constituency.

Of the two, I think Manzano will weather all this with less damage — even if he might have a sore knee for a while.

Maybe Douglas Bruce will think about knees more carefully now, even to the point of getting down on his own, experiencing what real prayer is all about.

If he does, politics in Colorado will be the better for it — as will the life of the media marketplace around him, that won't be going away anytime soon.