The Anchoress
Ever since Newsweek’s Evan Thomas admitted “of course we want John Kerry to win,” and that the press would be able to give Kerry a “10-15%” boost,” in poll numbers, I’ve had no time for the magazine; I miss nothing, as it has lately become a very, very thin weekly homage to Barack Obama.
But this is interesting. Was this done on purpose? Who at Newsweek thought that inserting an image of -who is that, Karl Marx? Charles Darwin?- into the apple was a good idea? Was it meant to embarrass the White House or to support it? I can’t imagine this happened by accident, but perhaps it did.
At first I was sure the image was a photoshop done by some “nefarious right-winger,” but then I saw that if you go to the cover story article at Newsweek, they are featuring what looks to be an altogether more flattering shot with a cropped-and-apple-free pose.
Actually, seeing the second pose, with cropped apple, makes me believe that the weird image inside the apple really was a freakish accident of lighting. Were it not, they’d have left the apple in the shot, right? But the image must have shown up in all the photos. Could someone at Newsweek have tampered with all of the photos? That seems unlikely.
Not helpful to the Obama’s, though, to have this happen, right behind the NY Times “enhancing with illustration” a picture of the President.
Or, you know, Newsweek could just be looking to generate a buzz, and get some attention for itself. Given this “open and transparent” administration, we’ll likely never know.
What are your thoughts?
UPDATE: Here is a (blurry) closeup of the apple:
Okay, I am convinced that it’s simply a matter of the apples’ shading and the lighting. But you can see why some people are amused. See: Rasputin, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Burl Ives, Z.Z. Topp.
UPDATE II: Vanderleun has more and Ann Althouse has a bit of fun with this and says I have sounded a retreat, rather than be thought foolish.
But I’m a Catholic; I have learned to be skeptical of images in food. :-)
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