RTA
September 16, 2005, 12:19pm
81
Perhaps his handwriting is errratic because he was nervous. After all, it is not very often that he appears before a crowd that hasn’t been carefully stocked with fawning, hand-picked Republican supporters.
All those international types staring at him with abundant contempt gave him the jingle-jangles, and he felt the need to steal away to the little cheerleader’s room - to snort some coke!
lieu
September 16, 2005, 4:54pm
82
Well, it is now a mad mad mad mad world.
jawdirk
September 16, 2005, 9:23pm
83
I just checked Snopes, and they have it as True now.
…of course it was fake.Here is the REAL note.
:: watches as the photoshop floodgates open ::
Diceman
September 17, 2005, 1:32am
85
Snopes is now describing Rick Wilking as a “former Reuters photographer.”
When did he leave Reuters’ employ? It wasn’t yesterday or today, was it? :dubious:
“Former Reuters staff photographer.” That could mean he works on his own now, but also contributes to Reuters.
From Snopes:
There’s no reason to doubt the authenticity of the photograph, as Rick Wilking is an established photographer with 12 years’ experience shooting news photos in Washington (including various White House assignments) who recently covered the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans (leaving that city only, according to Editor & Publisher, “after his laptop and two cameras were stolen from his car parked near the convention center”). As well, Reuters carried other pictures of the same scene from the United Nations, including one that appears to have captured the back of President Bush’s head.
According to Gary Hershorn, news editor-photos for the Americas at Reuters, at the time Rick Wilking snapped the pictures he was unaware of the contents of the note President Bush was writing :
“Rick had no idea what he was shooting, or what Bush was writing,” Hershorn said. “If Rick knew what he was writing we’d have 25 pictures of this, not two.”
The photo was taken at 12:08 p.m. and it was Hershorn, about three hours later, who took the trouble to examine the photo closely. It was only then that he noticed the writing and decided to put it on the wire after 4:00.
It sounds like both Reuters and the photog are confirming this as true. I can’t see any good reason to keep flogging it as a “conspiracy”
