Every picture tells a story, or so the saying goes.
Alas, pictures were the only story as Mideast peace talks at nearby Camp David lurched through day six on Sunday amid a strictly enforced news blackout. Like sheep at a trough, an international press corps, accustomed to news gathering in the digital age, has been reduced to gathering at bulletin boards in the temporary media headquarters at Thurmont Elementary School. There, in a classroom with dull wooden floors the honey color of faded shellac, White House press officers have pinned two dozen photographs, each one a carefully chosen 8X10 glossy glimpse into diplomacy behind closed doors at the presidential retreat five miles down the road. Here, for instance, is President Clinton, a grey shirttail trailing from behind a pair of faded blue jeans, strolling through the Catoctin Mountain woods early on in the talks. Shuffling along at his side is Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, in his trademark olive military dress and black and white keffiyeh, the traditional Arab headdress.