Your Turn: 200 Pounds Of Attitude
How do you read this nyt.com image, featuring this portrayal of a black women in this current Universal Studios ad?
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Typical Patterns
I'm sorry, but Bush himself showing up yesterday morning to shut down the White House press room? (And the star-struck reporters -- wowed by the former Press Secretaries -- falling all over themselves?) It was like 2003 all over again.
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Your Turn: Biblical Proportions
Whenever I'm running low on zzzz's, I know I can count on the readership to maintain the pace. With the Lieberman primary coming soon, Thomas Dworzak offers up this freakish photo in the latest New York Magazine.... Coming up with zilch, the best I could do was read it...
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The Marines Have Landed. (Pass Your Luggage.)
Just for a moment, couldn't you imagine these U.S. Marines landing in Lebanon this past week for some deeper purpose, such as peace keeping or local humanitarian relief? Instead, however, the visual media -- once again, serving as the PR arm of the government -- flooded us with dramatic...
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Dems Fold Over Web Caskets
Oh, now I understand why the Dems pulled their "controversial" web ad about America being on the wrong track. It was not just because the piece contained the one shot of caskets coming back from Iraq. It's because it contained two offensive frames -- the second revealing a standing...
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Only The Dead (And Right Wing) Have Seen The End Of War
The Administration gets completely smacked down by the Supremes for their terror detention policy and the Repugs crow how that's a good thing. The situation in Iraq keeps getting worse, with the country tilting toward civil war, and the Repugs declare how the war is their best issue. To make...
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Plenty Of Energy For The Picture — If Not Much Juice Besides
Random June 12 caption: Reveals propaganda talking points Iraqi soldiers seen here jubilating in Baghdad after hearing Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announcing 08 June 2006 the death of al-Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
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Tall Tales
Visually, the story of the Sears Tower plot -- allegedly broken up by the DOJ -- had everything going for it ... except a credible threat.
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Military Tragedy Vs. Bush Bounce
Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, Texas, went missing after a checkpoint attack near Yusufiya, Iraq.... Menchaca is one of the two U.S. soldiers found dead after they became missing on Friday at a checkpoint in Yusufiya, a town in an area south of Baghdad. (Menchaca family/Handout/Reuters) bare arm This...
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Singing In The Rain
Let's review what can happen when the media gets caught up in a White House spin cycle. Forget the fact a number of prisoners killed themselves in Gitmo, or that more data came out on Haditha. Last week, the MSM treated the the Zarqawi killing like we had snuffed...
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Schmoozer-In-Chief
Although this Administration photo is seven weeks old, it now seems to mark the inauguration of the White House's "Bush/Bolton" strategy. According to this piece in yesterday's NYT, April is when Bolton began to assert himself, reshaping the previously insulated and hostile Dubya into someone who "reaches out."
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Changing Wars Like He Changes Underwear
try to make us forget iraq new set of troops and new war Bagram President George W. Bush poses for photos with U.S. and Coalition troops Wednesday, March 1, 2006, during a stopover at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, prior to his visit to India and Pakistan.
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Latest NYT Attack Victim: The Addict
Not only does The Times set up the article by going through the decades-old litany of "wacko" Brown associations -- including Linda Ronstadt, We The People, Mother Teresa, Governor Moonbeam -- they reference the Ronstadt relationship twice by forcing Brown to comment to it. The most toxic aspect of...
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Haditha: Return Of The "Bad Apples?"
As the Haditha killings work their way into the public consciousness and impact the political calculus of the war, The BAG is curious how the corresponding visual narrative is going to play. These three shots -- taken on a night raid in Haditha and dated simply "2005" -- showed up...
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Getting The Kerry Treatment
Almost systematic effort to undermine and negatively stereotype almost every Dem that is gaining or stands to gain more visibility and authority in Washington.... For example, where Bush was constant shown pressing the flesh and making eye contact, Kerry was just as often depicted standing apart from people around...
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Got Your Back
Karl, that was quite a morning you had yesterday. Certainly, desperate times deserve ... a mad media dash to the Diplomatic Reception Room. And they ate up your pic. Just look what those guilty types at USA Today did with it. So it wasn't subtle. But time was short, and...
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Undertaking A New Strategy?
"Jest" a little free association from The BAG: 1. If White House shake-up was supposed to ease conformity, think again. 2. Administration looking a little down these days? 3. Maybe that's what happens after years of getting your back up. 4. Hubbard's folder lends interesting twist.... The economic picture: black and white and...
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Protection Racket: A "Freeze Frame" White House Correspondents Dinner Repor(t)
Media Matters, among a raft of others, has been on fire today over the MSM's (lack of) coverage of Saturday's White House Correspondents' Dinner. For the newswire equivalent of the white wash, you've got to appreciate this shot and caption which was supposed to somehow capture the Bush/Colbert exchange. The...
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