that wasn’t. I can’t believe that some on the right are even talking about this. I mean, seriously, don’t we have enough to talk about in this country without the need to invent yet another “conspiracy” that isn’t?
You want a cropped photo to complain about? Okay, I’ll give you one (click to enlarge).
That photo, which cropped all but a small portion of President G.W. Bush’s right arm out, was used by none other than Fox News in their use of an Associated Press article titled Bloody Sunday anniversary: Thousands crowd Selma bridge. Don’t believe me?
Can’t we focus on real issues?
Or, perhaps, focus on attracting more voters to our side? Our positions?
You want to know what I don’t see in that picture? Cropped or not?
I don’t see the candidates vying for the Republican nomination for President in 2016. Don’t you think this would have been a golden opportunity to reach out to a community that doesn’t trust us? A historic milestone?
Instead, our candidates were at an agricultural summit in Iowa, chasing the votes of an inconsequential small state, a state that has voted for the Democrat in four of the last five presidential elections? A state with a grand total of SIX electoral votes?
That’s what I think we should be talking about.
Fishie says
I agree, many, if not all, of the purported 2016 contenders ought to have been there in Selma.
But the point of bringing up the cropping-out was to illustrate a media tactic – framing the issue to fit the narrative. The narrative was that no Republicans showed up at all. That’s been repeated on social media and traditional media. But oops, front and center was W.
Pointing out when the media has some meme to advance (rather than reporting an inconvenient truth) has value in equipping our side to dig deeper beyond the headlines, like when Thom Tillis was blasted for saying that restaurant employees shouldn’t be required to wash their hands. That’s a totally bogus story, but it went with the ‘Republicans are anti-science/The free market will kill us all’ meme..
So while I agree, our candidates should have been there and gave Iowa the finger, there was another way in which I think the story is not only valid, but highly useful.
david jennings says
Are you mad at FoxNews?
DanMan says
are you?
david jennings says
No. Not mad at the NY Times either and I think it is silly to criticize the picture. I take and post a lot of pictures. IMO, the one the Times used is better than the wide shot that includes both Presidents. If people really have a need to “blame” something, then perhaps the two Presidents could have walked side-by-side.
Fat Albert says
The NYT has an agenda?!?!? OMG!!!! Fox News sees things from a different perspective? How can that be!!! The only thing that’s even remotely interesting about the story is that the Times was so blatant in their prevarication.
The days when the press served as a impartial deliverer of raw data for individuals to process are gone forever (if they ever existed at all). Get you news from a bunch of different sources, take into account the political and philosophical mindset of each source and think for yourself. End of story.