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A deliberate mistake in today's NY Times front page?

07/25/08 · 8:03 am :: posted by The Blogfather     

Or does "flopping the negative" make the candidate look more democratic?

7-25-08-barack-berlin_600  This is a photo as printed on the front page of today's New York Times. To a printer or newspaper person, it is obviously "flopped" which means the negative was printed in reverse.

At least a few more American's will get a geography lesson

By Walter Brooks

Above is the photo as printed on the front page of today's New York Times. It is a photo of Barack Obama addressing a large rally in Berlin, Germany yesterday. Even an amateur photographer might notice that it is  "flopped" which means the negative was printed in reverse.

7-25-08-barack-berlin2_294It's most obvious because of the man holding the sign which readsalogna_60.

By "flopping the negative" in Photoshop ourselves as shown on the right, readers can see the scene as the photographer did with the sign readingangola_60_01.

But why? Am  I right, or is Dan Kennedy?

In this correct version Mr. Obama appears to be raising his right hand instead, a gesture which the Times photo editor may have thought looked too much like a German fascist of another age giving the infamous "Seig Heil" Nazi salute.

Or is that sign simply transparent and the man is holding it the wrong way?

But Dan Kennedy in MediaNation disagrees with my conclusion. He believes that the Boston Globe's use of another photo of the scene with Obama waving his right arm proves that the NY Times photo is kosher after all.

As a skeptical newspaperman I don't believe in coincidences, and the juxtaposition of that 1940s salute in the very place of its origin may have been too much for that particular Timesman. 

And this is now coupled with the brouhaha earlier this week over the NY Times sending Senator John McCain's Op Ed piece back to him for additions.

"War is God's way of teaching Americans geography." - Ambrose Bierce

Still, one has to be pleased as a few more geography-challenged Americans may know where Germany is located.

As the CNN story of two years ago stated; "After more than three years of combat and nearly 2,400 U.S. military deaths in Iraq, nearly two-thirds of Americans aged 18 to 24 still cannot find Iraq on a map, a study released Tuesday showed..."

16 comments
Blog posts and comments are entirely the thoughts and ideas of the people who write them and in no way represent the views of CapeCodToday.com, eCape, Inc., or its employees or owners.

07/25/08 @ 9:19 am
capeconservative [Member] writes:
Thank you for pointing out the Nazi salute issue. A demagogue is a dangerous thing no matter what language he speaks or his nation of origin. A very liberal friend of mine recently said that the first time she heard Obama speak it "made my skin crawl".
 [ Show all comments by this user ]
07/25/08 @ 10:03 am
videopaul [Member] writes:
The funny thing was that last night on the news they showed scenes of Obama in front of throngs then showed McCain in some small room with a few old men. I am sceptical about Obama, but McCain is going to get creamed in this election.
 [ Show all comments by this user ]
07/25/08 @ 10:05 am
snowleopard#7 [Member] writes:
Didn't CCT flip the neg on Pudge Fisk just a few weeks ago (or was that the NYT too?) Was the Yankee-loving NYT casting Fisk in a worse light, as a "switchhitter?" (Or does the Times actually love the Sox, since they're part owners? Doesn't matter, we can always make the facts fit our own paranoias . . .)

Walter, I'd put more stock in your theory IF the next photo below this on their website didn't show another photo of Obama waving simililarly with his right hand.(And who sez you can't give the Nazi salute with your southpaw?)

Sorry, I think this is just a case of "More Mush From the Wimp" -- Daily newspapers make mistakes, daily.
 [ Show all comments by this user ]
07/25/08 @ 10:56 am
julie brooks [Member] writes:
Scary thing #1: More than 100 Germans in one place at the same time.

Scary thing #2: More than 100 Germans in one place at the same time cheering a schwartze.

I think Obama lost the Jewish vote with this move.
 [ Show all comments by this user ]
07/25/08 @ 11:21 am
snowleopard#7 [Member] writes:
Yikes, doesn't CCT have standards for language like that? I mean, would you casually drop the N-word in a post like this? (And don't try to say it's harmless word -- Google it!)
 [ Show all comments by this user ]
07/25/08 @ 11:43 am
Ned [Member] writes:
Ooooh... snowleopard, it's my experience that since the 'CC2D' is a serious competitor to the Cape Cod Times and thus it's frequently referenced... for me 'CCT' means 'Cape Cod Times' so it took me awhile to parse your meaning. I LOVE it when women curse in Yiddish... that's hot! Some of my old Yippie pals who drifted into the Jewish Defense Organization(some drifted into the JDL too but I'm bein' specific here...)liked the term 'schvoogie'... it is kinda evil in a Howard Stern-y way, but when a woman says it... maybe a degree less evil...
 [ Show all comments by this user ]
07/25/08 @ 11:51 am
Ned [Member] writes:
It just looks like the big O is waving, not giving the stiff-arm Deutscher Gruss, but who knows what the Times art dept. was thinking? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_salute
 [ Show all comments by this user ]
07/25/08 @ 11:57 am
Buzz [Member] writes:
Notice also, they airbrushed any upper lip hair.... coincidence?
 [ Show all comments by this user ]
07/25/08 @ 1:29 pm
Monponsett [Member] writes:
Obama may have Angolan roots.
 [ Show all comments by this user ]
07/25/08 @ 2:19 pm
julie brooks [Member] writes:
snowleopard: I did not say "schwartze" as a racial slur against Obama from me personally. I never use this word personally in a serious way; it is meant here as a joke, albeit tasteless one. I meant it on several levels:

One, it's a Yiddish word which like most Yiddish words has its roots in German and the the word for black in German is schwartz

Two, I heard this word all the time when i lived in Boston used by many people, not just Jews. It's not nearly the same as the n-word. It's like someone using the word "negro" today. It's not used to directly insult a black person; it's more of a whispered comment about a particular neighborhood, etc. It definitely is derogatory, though.

Three, I don't know if Germans use it in the same way.

Four, most people on Cape Cod would not even get what schwartze meant

Five, interestingly, I was friends with Jewish families when I grew up in the south and thought that schwartze was the Yiddish word for "maid" until I moved to Boston. Now *that's* racist.
 [ Show all comments by this user ]
07/25/08 @ 3:24 pm
balognasamich [Member] writes:
Is Fisk really a switch hitter?
A shiksa friend of mine was wondering....
 [ Show all comments by this user ]
07/25/08 @ 7:06 pm
williamaveryhudson [Member] writes:
I am sorry to say it, but shame on you, Walter Brooks. The Boston Globe photo also shows the Angola transparent in reverse. And a thousand clues in the NYT photo show that it was not flopped. Politicians wave with both hands, alternately and together, during a speech. Your post is in a class with Fox News' "terrorist fist jab". I'm sorry that some benighted souls will give the post credence. Again, shame on you. I cannot believe you posted this entry in good faith.
 [ Show all comments by this user ]
07/25/08 @ 7:37 pm
Monponsett [Member] writes:
My maiden name means "little dark," but I'm as white as it gets.
 [ Show all comments by this user ]
07/25/08 @ 8:26 pm
capewatchdog [Member] writes:
Huh! I always thought Schwartze was a Polish, no I take that back, Dutch portrait artist. Guess I'm missing something.
 [ Show all comments by this user ]
07/25/08 @ 8:53 pm
possee [Member] writes:
The big'o' has millions fooled..
as do all politicians..
as soon as you digest their diatribe ..
you are doomed to eternal disappointment.

No politician is going to save the world, nor have they..

keep on questioning them all..
but never give faith to their dialogue..
nor their animation..
study their beliefs and actions..
then decide..
as aptly put by Jethro Tull..
'if Jesus saves, then you'd better save yourself.."
 [ Show all comments by this user ]
07/25/08 @ 9:06 pm
pennyroyal [Member] writes:
Didn't Mel Brooks coin the phrase "may the Schwartz be with you" in "Spaceballs"-pretty funny movie...same kind of Schwartz? Please advise.
 [ Show all comments by this user ]
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hat135Up-starts, up-smarts, other cranks & dilettantes adorn a media scene once renown for excellence, so this journal will attempt to point out the more obvious foibles and triumphs of the local press to our gentle readers and fellow Cape Codders. Contributors include Walter Brooks, Jack Coleman and Spyro Mitrokostas.

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