Hmmmm....I think that I would need to side with the photojournalist on this one.  I don't believe that I have the right to copy and use without permission any published photograph of the Statue of Liberty, merely because it is a public statue, on public land, taken from a public vantage point and published in a daily circular. 

The camera aspect ratio choices, types of lens, format, media, shot composition, and more enter into the equation on any photograph.  It is undeniable that it takes physical exertion of some basic amount (i.e. "work" as a function of labor, expertise, equipment, and time) to photograph a statue or a document image.  EVEN WITH the new camera systems that are point, shoot and focus after the fact (because they gather tons of  polarization and directional metadata about the incoming light), there are elements of photojournalism at play.

 I'm not sure, if we say that the pictures on my business camera are not able to be copyrighted, that we cannot equally say that I don't have a right to use the pictures of your family in the park that reside on your SD Card or laptop.  What's the difference?  After all, ultimately, the things in the photos, barring clearly illegal content like government secrets, are simply objects in the ambient environment....   just sayin'