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January 27, 2014 12:20 PM UTC

For the Love Of...STOP USING AURORA SHOOTING PHOTOS for Political Stories

  • 7 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

What is it with right-wing political commentators and their complete inability to do a simple search on the origin of a photo? We pointed this out, again, when radio talk show host Peter Boyles used a photoshopped image from a moment during which elected officials were greeting each other somberly after the Aurora theater Shootings.

The right-wing outlet "The Daily Caller" is attempting to drub some kind of scandal into Sen. Mark Udall's research into claims that hundreds of thousands of Coloradans received incomplete notices about changes resulting from Obamacare — a "scandal" that has already been debunked as nonsense on numerous occasions.

Sen. Mark Udall at the Aurora Theater Shooting site in 2012.
Sen. Mark Udall and President Obama at an event held in the aftermath of the 2012 Aurora theater shootings.

Naturally, whenever right-wing outlets are trying to create a scandal out of thin air, they always like to imply that President Obama is somehow involved as well. That's probably why "The Daily Caller" used the picture on your right in their story.

Here's the caption for the photo at right, as supplied by Saul Loeb of AFP/Getty Images:

President Obama, joined by Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., tells a story he heard from one of the shooting victims about holding her fingers on her best friend's neck to stop the bleeding. The president spoke during a visit to the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora, Colo.

It's not overly difficult to do a Google image search and check the source of your picture. This picture misuse isn't nearly as bad as the more commonly-photoshopped picture that also includes Sen. Michael Bennet and Gov. John Hickenlooper (here's one of the most egregious examples), but it's still an inappropriate use of a photo taken during a terrible time in Colorado — and around the country. Whatever emotions the reader might infer from this picture are unfair to a lot of people.

Comments

7 thoughts on “For the Love Of…STOP USING AURORA SHOOTING PHOTOS for Political Stories

  1. I think you should let it go, Pols. These photos are in circulation, and they may be used by anyone with a license. There is nothing that says these can only be used in stories about the Aurora tragedy. If that was the rule, there are probably hundreds of misused photos of George Bush and other Republicans out there.

    1. There is no law against it, and we weren't implying anything other than our own disgust that these pictures would be used for other stories. It's not that hard to figure out where the picture is from, and then find a different picture instead. Photoshopped images of Gov. Bill Owens after Columbine would be just as innapropriate. It's wrong no matter who does it.

      1. But……………only one side does do it.

        It says a ton about the people low enough to use this material, and just as much about those who defend it.

        Anger never looks pretty, but the gunzos have brought the ugliness to a new level.

        Kind of flies in the face of the boasts that they're "winning the argument". This stuff is what somebody uses as a last resort, not when they're resonating.

    2. Just because something may be used doesn't mean a decent human being should use it. But it's no surprise. We are quite used to the right being the simple human decency free zone.

      1. Go easy on him BC.  He's a Republican.  He doesn't understand the concepts of "good taste" or "respecting the dead."  He and others of his party lump it all under the rubric of "political correctness."

        1. Yes. I remember well when objecting to Michelle Obama being portrayed as a gorilla or the WH lawn as a watermelon patch in rightie cartoons was just a matter of them liberals making a fuss over PC and not racist at all. All in good fun. Can't take a joke? yadyadyada.

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