The myth of the ‘leaked’ photograph
How can you ‘leak’ an AP photo?
Left, the National Examiner Feb. 4, 2008
Now it can be told. This truly absurd non-story is actually quite useful as an example of Clinton Rules, which Paul Krugman neatly summed up in February:
What’s particularly saddening is the way many Obama supporters seem happy with the application of “Clinton rules” — the term a number of observers use for the way pundits and some news organizations treat any action or statement by the Clintons, no matter how innocuous, as proof of evil intent.
There’s not the slightest shred of evidence that Clinton staff circulated the picture, but it is a fact that it was circulating on right wing sites previously. And even if some local Clinton dweeb in East Buttfuck, Texas, passed it along, nothing as yet links it to anyone with any executive power in the Clinton campaign. So all we have is the word of the notoriously ethical and reliable Matt Drudge. Compare the outrage over the anonymous sources in the New York Times story on McCain’s sleazy side. But when it comes to the Clintons, Drudge gets a complete pass.
Why hasn’t Drudge reproduced the email that he said he received? We don’t know that the Clinton campaign released the picture. Click here and you’ll see that it’s been around for a long time. It was posted on FreeRepublic on Feb. 23, 2008. It appeared even earlier in the National Examiner Feb. 4, 2008 issue.
I could be wrong, but I don’t really think that the Clinton higher-ups had anything to do with the picture “leak” (in quotes, because how can you leak an AP shot that’s already been published by a supermarket tabloid with a circulation of around 430,000, as well as on many right wing sites?).
I think the picture is advance notice of what we can expect from Republicans if Obama should lock up the nomination. I also believe that the point of the supposed email is exactly right. An equivalent picture of Hillary would have been on every front page in the world. It plays into every right wing game plan option against Obama.
I’m not sure what the Clinton equivalent would be, but I do notice that Huffington Post never fails to have a hideously unflattering picture of her on its front page, and I have seen many others even worse on right wing sites, especially those that accentuate her age.
Just fill up on the Haterade (Thank you, Veronica), folks. Obama is always wonderful. Hillary is always the bitch. Until the election I guess, when John McCain will be the anointed and the Democratic candidate will again be the anti-Christ.
That’s why I am so suspicious of Peggy Noonan (and all the others on the right) who gush over Obama. I suspect a trap. I believe that they want Obama to be the nominee because they believe he will be easier to beat than Clinton. They are counting on racism and fear of Moslems to save them. I am not sure they will function very well this time. I noticed one online poll (the NY Daily News, if I recall correctly) in which the overwhelming majority of the respondents did not change their opinions of Obama as a result of the picture.
The Hillary campaign had it exactly right. The picture is not divisive for Democrats, who have already discounted all that kind of garbage. It remains to be seen whether the general voter will agree.
Meanwhile, I urge you to go over to Media Matters and read the following very astute and comprehensive analysis of how it all works.
John McCain and the Clinton RulesBy Jamison Foser
In the wake of this week’s controversy surrounding John McCain’s dealings with lobbyists, and his honesty about those dealings, it is impossible to avoid thinking about how differently the media would have handled the news had it been about Bill Clinton or Al Gore rather than John McCain. Three consistent rules of media coverage of purported scandals involving progressives come immediately to mind:
1. If any part of an alleged scandal turns out to be true, the media behaves as though the entire story is true.
More here and very well worth your while.
The silly season (usually an August phenomenon) has arrived early, yet another effect of Global Climate Change, I guess.
