Brewer/Obama Showdown: a pointed look

There are two is one sides to every story

News must have been pretty slow last Friday because the biggest story was about Arizona Governor Jan Brewer wagging her finger at President Obama on the tarmac when he paid a visit to her state. It shouldn't surprise anyone that the media managed to draw this story entirely from a single photo. Almost every version of the story makes a point of the fact that no one actually heard the two executives' exchange.

Nevertheless, so eager was the legacy media to further the guise of Obama as the benevolent savior to the ungrateful hordes that they whipped up a story of Brewer's belligerence out of practically nothing. Cue the stream of commentaries and editorials decrying Brewer for her "hostility." As such, it should probably come as no surprise that the single photo driving the story is also edited. 

No, there is no Photoshop chicanery, but the image that is most returned on Google Images has been strategically cropped. The full image, which has not made the internet rounds nearly as well, reveals Obama holding an envelope.

So what? Why is this important? Because it provides a sense of chronology when compared to this picture (also in scarce supply online), in which Brewer is holding the envelope. 

Various outlets have reported that the governor handed the president a letter, so we know this picture was taken before the more prevalent one. In this earlier shot, Obama already appears perturbed and possibly confrontational while Brewer is at least affecting a pleasant smile.


Does this matter much? In the grand scheme of things, probably not. But it does show that even in the most trivial of matters, the media cannot resist contorting the facts to the benefit of Dear Leader.

Further reading: Commentarama - You're Not the Boss of Me 

Comments

  1. AndrewPriceFebruary 7, 2012 at 3:26 PM

    Oddly, none of these articles showed up in my dashboard until right now. I suddenly got a notice that there were 20 articles I hadn't read. Weird.

    ReplyDelete
  2. tryanmaxFebruary 7, 2012 at 4:25 PM

    Well, if you happen to get bored... :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. AndrewPriceFebruary 11, 2012 at 1:51 PM

    The thing is, I've seen them. They've all come up on my dashboard before, but they suddenly reappeared. Google is a strange world.

    ReplyDelete

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