Following Free Republic, Drudge's lead, media run with Obama photo that doesn't show what they claim
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SUMMARY: Following the lead of Free Republic and the Drudge Report, media outlets highlighted a photo of President Obama from the G-8, in some cases with provocative, needling, or scolding commentary that is not supported by video of the event.
After a Free Republic member posted a Reuters photo described as "U.S. President Barack Obama (C) and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (R) tak[ing] their places with junior G8 delegates for a family photo at the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy," Matt Drudge promoted the same photo. Subsequently, ABC News' Jake Tapper, Fox News, and the New York Post followed their lead, highlighting the photo online and on screen, in some cases with provocative, needling, or scolding commentary. But a review of the video, which the media promoting the photo either did not watch or did not allow to give pause, makes clear that Obama was attempting to navigate high steps, while reaching back to help someone behind him do so as well. As Fox News host Greta Van Susteren said after airing video of the event, "Yes, a still picture can lie. And this one does."
As Media Matters for America has documented, media figures previously attacked Obama based on an interpretation of a photograph that was similarly disproved by video evidence.
The Reuters photo posted on Free Republic by TornadoAlley3 at 2:45 p.m. ET:*
At 3:14 p.m. ET, the Drudge Report posted the photo with the headline, "Mr. President!" Drudge later revised the headline to "Second Stimulus Package!" The Drudge Report subsequently included a link to Tapper's blog post under the headline, "ABCNEWS: NO HE DIDN'T ..."
Media figures making dubious claims about the photo following its posting on Free Republic and the Drudge Report include:
- The Fox Nation picked up the photo with the headline, "Another Stimulus?" which was later revised to "Busted?"
The Fox Nation subsequently posted the following photo with the headline, "Girl Obama Was Checking Out Is 17?":
- At 5:20 p.m. ET, Tapper posted the photo with the headline, "When In Rome...?" Around 4 a.m. ET on July 10, Tapper posted on Twitter, "that foto of POTUS seeming to be sneaking a leer is misleading, im told -- video shows the moment was completely innocent." He also updated his blog post, including video of the incident:
On first glance, the snapshot appears to show President Obama caught in a moment of less than lofty analysis. But upon looking at the video, the moment might seem to appear quite innocent -- one of those times when a picture can be misleading. The president was on a higher step and was stepping down -- so he looked down to assure his footing as the woman was walking up the stairs.
Although: not everyone agrees. Judge for yourself.
He later updated his post with video of the exchange from ABC's Good Morning America.
- On the July 9 edition of his Fox News show, Sean Hannity stated, "[S]o there I am. I'm on the radio today, and I click on to the Drudge Report. And I say, 'Oh, Barack Obama in his Bill Clinton moment,' " before showing the photograph on air. After Fox News political analyst Kirsten Powers stated, "They're looking at something else, like out of -- it's the camera angle. ... [I]t's not in the picture," Hannity replied, "He's looking at her backside, can we just say it?"
- In a July 10 New York Post article published online at 3:28 a.m. ET and linked to by Drudge by 6:10 a.m. ET, Todd Venezia posted the photo and wrote:
Baby got Barack!
The leader of the free world and his French counterpart were caught sneaking a peek at a the pink-satin-draped booty of a 17-year-old junior G-8 delegate just moments before the summit's official group photo was snapped in Italy yesterday.
Obama wasn't the only head of state getting Yankee Doodle randy.
Venezia also added video from Good Morning America to his post.
- The following day, Fox & Friends aired the photo with the caption, "Tail to the chief." Co-hosts Brian Kilmeade and Gretchen Carlson, along with guest co-host Andrew Napolitano, asserted that the photo was evidence that Obama "sneak[ed] a "peek" at "a beauty's backside." Carlson stated of the photo, "That's just a natural reaction, is it not, guys?' Napolitano responded, "It surely is. That's why there's so many pictures of it."
Fox & Friends subsequently aired another photograph from the G-8 summit with the caption, "Yes, nice can":
As video of that incident makes clear, the claim that Obama is "check[ing] out the ladies" from this photo is also baseless.
From the July 9 edition of Fox News' Hannity:
HANNITY: And we continue with our "Great American Panel."
All right, so there I am. I'm on the radio today, and I click on to the Drudge Report. And I say, "Oh, Barack Obama in his Bill Clinton moment." Let's show the picture.
POWERS: Or not.
HANNITY: Now, check -- are you all watching? Do you see that picture? There it is.
POWERS: Oh, no.
HANNITY: What do you mean, "Oh" --
POWERS: He's looking at something on the ground.
HANNITY: What --
POWERS: You see there's something, like, right there on the corner?
HANNITY: What, a piece of paper on the ground?
POWERS: Yeah. He's looking at that paper.
HANNITY: Do you really think so?
POWERS: That's my official position.
HANNITY: Now Peter Johnson, if that was you going home, and that picture was up on the Drudge Report tonight -- I know you're happily married. What would the reaction be?
JOHNSON: You know --
HANNITY: When have you ever been at a loss for words?
JOHNSON: I'm at a loss for words. You know, I'm sure there's a good explanation for that. I think he saw --
POWERS: It's the camera angle.
JOHNSON: I think he was bowing to the Saudi prince.
HANNITY: Is that what that is?
JOHNSON: I think there was something going on there.
K.T. McFARLAND (former Pentagon spokeswoman): What I want to know is, who is Sarkozy looking at? Is he looking at Obama --
HANNITY: Yeah, I --
McFARLAND -- or is he looking at the lady?
HANNITY: Either that, or Sarkozy just whispered --
POWERS: See, I --
HANNITY: -- "Hey, take a look."
McFARLAND: Hey, take a look at that. Yeah.
POWERS: They're looking at something else. They're looking at something else, like out of -- it's the camera angle.
HANNITY: And what -- tell me what they're looking at.
POWERS: I can't see it, because it's not in the picture.
HANNITY: Have you gone this far into the Obama camp?
[crosstalk]
HANNITY: You used to be a fairly reasonable liberal. I mean --
POWERS: I'm -- I just don't --
HANNITY: He's looking at her backside, can we just say it? And --
JOHNSON: And, you can -- he's leaning right. He's leaning right for the first time in his career.
From the July 10 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:
CARLSON: Let me give you some inside information about men.
NAPOLITANO: Howard [Stern], if you're watching, let us know.
CARLSON: This is the inside information, ladies, about men. Check out this photo. Yup.
NAPOLITANO: There's nothing inside about that. Oh, who is the lady?
CARLSON: Well --
NAPOLITANO: Do we know?
KILMEADE: Yes.
CARLSON: Well, she's a 17-year-old G-8 intern, right?
KILMEADE: Yeah, Mayara Tavares --
NAPOLITANO: Is she a friend --
KILMEADE: -- of Rio de Janeiro.
NAPOLITANO: Oh, she's not a friend of the Italian prime minister?
KILMEADE: No -- Berlusconi not pictured here, strangely.
CARLSON: Whoa. OK, now --
NAPOLITANO: There's Berlusconi.
KILMEADE: What the heck is going on?
CARLSON: Is this the same location?
KILMEADE: Look at Berlusconi. I'm going to stare at my shoes until the camera's off.
NAPOLITANO: Right. Right. That must be --
CARLSON: He's having a little bit of difficulty over there.
NAPOLITANO: That must be another one of Prime Minister Berlusconi's interns, no?
KILMEADE: Well, we know that he's having some issues.
* A photo posted on Free Republic at 5:48 p.m. on July 9 was removed from this item.
Is this where the Repubs have fallen to? Junior High School humor.
Junior HS "humor" coming from grade school intellects.
Just when I think they've hit rock bottom, the ground gives way and they drop to even lower depths. MSM thinks we are children.
As others have said, a new low, but not that much lower. Even if he was looking, so what? I'm about Obama's age, and if anybody's expecting me to be polite and pretend I don't look at 17 y.o. azz, you're gonna be waiting a while.
To be clear, I try to be discreet, and it's just looking. I'll stop when Im dead, I promise.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnoQ5qxSRAU&feature
What amazes me is that Hannity thinks your ability to think rationally about politics is whether or not you think Obama's looking at her and thinking "that's a nice ass"?
This whole thing is kind of ridiculous.... but so is FOX.
Feel free to explain how you think that a false accusation is humorous, though.
please with some of the crap he is doing right now the least he can hope for is a couple of embarrasing photos
he should be impeached with all of the czars that he has without congresional oversight and the insurmountable debt that both he and bush have given us nevermind global warming with the g8 the science does not stick
The video doesn't support you. You're also comparing apples and oranges. The issue here isn't that Obama is the subject of jokes for something he really did. The point is that he didn't do it, and dishonest partisan hacks are claiming otherwise.
Your brain is just a bag of trail mix, isn't it? All this random stuff jumbled together. Were Bush and Reagan at risk of impeachment because of the czars they appointed? How about because of the debt both of them racked up? I'd also like to see the Constitutional argument for impeaching someone for attending a summit based on the opinion that the science behind it "doesn't stick". Do you know what "impeachment" even means?
also explain to me why they didnt have one opposing scientist testify against Al , why you ask ? becuse the science doesnt stick
a few years ago it was global cooling with all the contrails left by aircraft
this left wing Go green garbage is just to let al gore make millions and for GE to become a complete energy monoply
oh and if i am not mistaken quite a few dems were calling for reagans and bushes impeachment why cant i ?
the constitution has been desacrated for the last 25 years a personally i swore a oath to defend her from all enemys foreign and domestic this is a republic no a democracy you cant change the rules
becuse they dont fit with you sceme
But can you eplain how this is any diffrent so what your saying is that letterman was right about palins daughter your telling me that leterman and nbc(msnbc) arn't hacks
please when you turn to a staitons that makes fun of peoples right to protest and call us some really nasty names what thats good news right or that they make fun of a politicans daughter (who is 14 ) about statuatory rape thats Ok or they make a huge thing about a swimming pool incident in Pa but completely ignore the 40 or so black kids that beat a guy and his family while chanting racial slurs and calling racial names. please!!! they are all connected if you request honesty it should be from both sides theirs is not to make the news just report it that includes Fox ,msnbc,cnn,nbc,abc and any other partisan news
"The young woman in question is stepping up from the step on which Obama is standing. That would place the line of her back about level with the top of the riser, that is, level with the front edge of the upper step. Which places her backside behind Obama's right shoulder.
"The line of Obama's gaze is ahead and down - that is, in front of his right shoulder. He is not looking at her - and you don't need to video to know that. All you need is to remember that photos are two-dimensional and the real world is three-dimensional."
The other thing that gets me - other than the apparent inability of so-called journalists to understand a photograph - is that in the video, the moment is so brief you normally wouldn't even know it happened. The fact that the still exists at all would seem to be proof that there are people out there who are plowing through every bit of video of Obama frame by frame to see if they can find something that can be made to look bad.
That's not only disturbing - it's really quite sad.
How is this a joke when the MSM is lying about a photo? Once again, reich-wingers fail to make a logical analogy.
But. Criminalizing falsehoods unfortunately would set a bad precident because at some point, such a law would eventually be misused against the truth.
That is why it is so hard to apply libel laws in the mass media.