While certainly not up there with Rather’s snafu, this is a pretty stupid mistake by Fox (the fake quote, the taller thing is obviously a joke, its posted on a conspiracy theory site) and they deserve some ridicule tossed in thier direction.
While we’re ridiculing Fox’s obsession with Kerry’s nail care, I’ll add my own short story. I was watching Fox’s predebate coverage, and one of the anchors was interviewing somebody in the Kerry camp about what Kerry was doing before the debate. The interviewee rattled off some things: resting, practicing, getting a manicure, blah, blah I don’t remember what else. In the context of the question, it was obvious that Kerry was getting the manicure specifically to look good for the cameras, something I’m sure all politicians do before a televised debate.
Anyhoo, of all the follow up questions the anchor could have asked, he says, with audible excitement in his voice, something to the effect of “does Kerry get manicures all the time?” !!
Apparently there’s some meme floating around Fox that Kerry is a girlie man who gets manicures every week, and at least one of their anchors have decided that this is important and needs to be brought to the publics attention.
Wasn’t it part of the 32 page agreement that when Bush and Kerry were shown in split screen, Bush would be shown as if he were as tall as Kerry? (I don’t think that the networks agreed to go along with that.) I noticed that C-Span had them on the same level although their podiums were not.
There is good reason. The taller candidate almost always wins. James Madison was an exception and there may have been a few others. (I cen’t provide a cite, but this info was in a textbook in a class I taught.)
Fox needs a new motto: Fair and Balanced Except When Fatigued
Whatever. The horizontal line is the one that was so striking. It’s not like the AFP picked a freak frame with Bush in mid-curtsy or something. It’s what we saw. At no time were those two men eye-to-eye.
Anyway, I agree that Fox’s photo is likely not digitally altered. Looks like a forced perspective illusion. And it goes without saying that height-above-floor isn’t a signifcant measure of a man when you’re looking for leadership.
It’s a virtual certainty that Fox’s photo editor picked that shot deliberately because it made Bush appear taller than he actually is, though.
Everyotherpicture I’ve seen of that moment looks like, you know, what was actually there. A big doofus with bad hair looming over a smug little punk.
The poor dears are all a-twitter from Bush’s spanking last night, I’d figure, and seeing their beloved Fox get spanked the morning after is proving to be a bit too much. Notice that they can’t even make a half-assed attempt at explaining why Fox was running 100% Artificially-Grown Kerry Quotes in their article in the first place.
As for the photo, it looks at first glance to me like Fox took the AP photo, diddled with the levels and hue/saturation a bit (hence the difference in skin tones), then gave George a digital lift. But even if we work on Larry Mudd’s theory that they simply had a different photo from a lower angle, that still begs the question of why they couldn’t just show the two candidates at their natural heights to begin with…
Well thats all swell, but of couese I never claimed that they were the same height, so you can put away that nice straw.
rjung claimed that the same photo was digitally altered by Fox.
I pointed out that they were not the same photo…but photos shot from different angles.
Who the hell knows why a particular shot was teken from a particular angle…although a statement like “It’s a virtual certainty that Fox’s photo editor picked that shot deliberately because it made Bush appear taller than he actually is, though.” just kind of stands out there flapping in the wind…
rjung you are an idiot, and people like you make it damn hard to mount a realistic fight against the neo-conservatives.
Please stop fighting on my side, as you’re making me look stupid by association.
If you want to damage Bush’s chances for re-election, and help give the Democrats a realistic chance to try to fix the manifold mistakes the Republicans have made in the last 4 years, talk about what they’ve done wrong and what we can do better, or just shut the hell up! Your crack-head conspiracy theories are NOT HELPING!
This just in. [teletype machine noise] Breaking news from Steve’s place [/teletype machine noise]
It is a totally unproveable, but impossible to disprove (and therefore true) “fact” that the taller candidate always wins.
I submit, that this is yet another dark conspiracy by tall people to grab power. The camera angles and digital modifications are all part of this sinister plot. Bush is just a pawn in this game, the real powers are Kareem Abdul Jabbar and The Big Show of wrestling fame. They look down at us, literally and figuratively. Ever see those thrill rides that have a sign discriminating against people who are too small to ride? It is part of a covert attempt by these evil geniuses to start our conditioning at an early age. Remember platform shoes? No matter how high the heels were, in our hearts we still knew we were small or average, and therfore unworthy wannabes. It’s a conspiracy I tell you!
Seriously, does it really matter who looked taller?
This sort of misses the point. Yes, it was obviously a joke. What’s interesting, however, is what it reveals about the mind-set of the “fair and balanced,” objective journalist who wrote it.
I never claimed you claimed they were the same height, I’m only pointing out that Fox’s photo presents a manifestly different picture than what was actually on the stage. Because of the obvious disparity between what we saw and what Fox showed, it’s natural that people might cry “Photoshop!” There are easier (and safer) ways to present a distorted picture.
I doubt the selection of a forced perspective shot was accidental, because FNC is, well… FNC.
There’d be nothing to comment on if Fox would just say “Our editorial policy is to represent our candidate in the best possible light while presenting a negative view of his opponent.”
It’s the pretense of even-handedness that makes them such a fun target. “Carl Cameron has been extremely fair to Kerry,” Brit Hume protested earlier this week, in response to an analysis that showed Fox News evaluated Kerry negatively 5 to 1, while network news evaluated him positively 2 to 1.
Cue the “John Kerry: What a faggy fag boy!” article. Nice.
Actually, it was the reporter assigned to cover Kerry for Fox, the reporter that Brit Hume defended as being very fair and balanced when a report was released showing that Fox coverage of Kerry has been overwhelmingly negative. So why have they assigned a “moron” that obviously thinks it a laugh riot to call Kerry a swishy wannabe fag to be their lead reporter covering him?
Reporters don’t just post their stories on the internet. Editors have to read them over too.
Oh my God…you’re right…except it’s worse, MUCH worse than what you and rjung have charged…apparently CNN is in on it! Why look…Bush and Kerry are the same height in THEIR photo as well…and we all know that that is “manifestly different” than reality!!
Actually…it looks like it’s an AP photo…so the AP conspired with CNN and Faux News to distort Dubyas height!!
But it gets uglier…that damn AP photo is showing up everywhere!!
I bet other photographers are in on it as well!! I bet they work for Diebold, right? Thank jeebus that you and rjung set me straight.
:smack:
Well now I don’t know what to think…first we have the fix in from Faux News.
Then the AP conspires with CNN and other newspapers.
And now… Now it appears that the commission that RAN the debate is doing a similar thing…I mean look at this photo. They are CLEARLY distorting the heights of Bush and Kerry…only it’s much worse my friends…Bush is shot in such a way as to make him appear TALLER!
It’s a flat out lie my friends, that appears to be spreading like a virus.
Notice that they can’t even make a half-assed attempt at explaining why Fox was running 100% Artificially-Grown Kerry Quotes in their article in the first place.