I missed the news conference today, but Vinny pointed out this photograph that is making people hot under the collar.

Apparently Matt Drudge had “AP gives Bush ‘devil horns’ in photograph” on his site and people started attacking the AP for manipulating the photo on purpose, or something to that effect.

Now I am no fan of the Associated Press, that’s for sure. But I think people are actually losing their minds. Do we have nothing better to consume our time than to debate whether there was some grand conspiracy to make the President look like the devil?

One of the arguments I have read tonight, is that “no one crops an image so close to the chin and then leaves so much room above the head, unless they were doing it on purpose”.

Okay, maybe so…

But maybe they were doing it on purpose to make sure the entire Presidential Seal was also in the photograph. You know, so people wouldn’t think you were trying to make it look like the President had horns or something…

While many conservative visitors will read this and scoff at my remarks, I think it’s a little bit ridiculous that I have read so much about the photo this evening, rather than the content of the news conference.

Are we becoming so petty that we can no longer debate the real issues and must spend our time arguing about the visual perception of a new conference photograph?

Even if the photographer intended to make the President appear to have horns, wouldn’t it be even more prudent to discuss the substance of his news conference rather than lower ourselves to that level?

1. Get off it. Earlier someone claimed such a photo had been manipulated to make Bush look as though he has a halo (look again at the larger shot).

   It’s unbelievable either way. Tell Tony Snow’s office to change the height of the seal.

   Comment by Ed Darrell on Dec 21st, 2006 @ 01:22

   
   

2. I think that, if they really wanted to push the devil reference, the photographer would have moved forward and angled the camera up higher to leave only the edges of the eagle wings instead. Sure, I think Chavez already had someone PhotoShop a pic of Bush as the devil for his personal dart board but there are more blatant ways the press will and have made the President look bad.

   Comment by Marten on Dec 21st, 2006 @ 12:20

   
   

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