FAKE "2nd photo" of Kerry-Fonda at rally

Vanity | Feb. 11, 2002 | Self

[Madstrider]

Hey, Freepers: I don't know who PhotoShopped that fake "2nd photo" of Kerry and Fonda at the antiwar rally, but you should know that you came within AN EYELASH of causing a huge embarassment.

Thank goodness Raoul made a phone call, so Kristinn just got a call from somebody who is a longtime press friend of FR who was about to go nationwide with the "2nd photo" story. You've got no idea how close this was to being a train wreck.

I am told NewsMax actually got suckered on this.

The same veterans who had circulated the original Fonda-Kerry photo apparently got hold of the PhotoShop fake and didn't know it was a joke. So when these veterans contacted the press Thursday morning claiming to have a second photo -- man! A lot of valuable time was wasted as reporters contacted Associated Press trying to verify the existence of this fake photo.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE be careful with this kind of stuff.

[TheBigB]

Yes,exactly!

[Howlin]

And we ALWAYS give credit where credit is due. Too much to ask, I suppose.

[Ditter]

I think the fake pic is Kerry & Fonda standing together on a stage.

[Flyer]

That one, in #34.

[reagan_fanatic]

This is more entertaining than a good movie and a bucket of popcorn.

[TaxRelief]

So why didn't anyone care when all those Rachel Corrie/ Bulldozer photos were faked?

[Spiff]

Registered made it. He admitted to it. He did it intentionally. He knew of the potential embarassment. He didn't seem to care.

I like most of what Registered does (well, except for the anti-McClintock stuff he did) but I'm disappointed in this behavior as it was potentially very damaging to Free Republic, to the GOP, and to President Bush's campaign.

I did my best yesterday afternoon/evening to get the word out that the pic was fake. Finally, the Admin Moderator jumped in and started deleting posts containing the fake photo and then Registered (for the second time) changed the photo that the link pointed to.

I've now seen the photo posted on two different websites as authentic (one added a "Fake Photo" qualifier later) and I heard that NewsMax published the fake photo as authentic and later pulled it.

I think Registered owes FreeRepublic an apology and needs to promise not to pull this crap again.

[GulliverSwift]

Good. I value the picture with his hands behind his head.

[Britton J Wingfield]

Flooding the internet with fake photos would be a great way to discredit the real one. I hope that people can restrain themselves.

[Spiff]

Oh, and credit SamWolfe with discovering the source photos on Corbis that Registered used. If he hadn't found those we might still be wondering if Registered's pic was real or not.

[LisaMalia]

I think Registered owes FreeRepublic an apology and needs to promise not to pull this crap again.

I agree. Thanks for your honesty.

[Jim Robinson]

Hint: the moderators didn't do it. The "photo" was never on FR's servers. Someone posted a link to the image on whatever server was hosting it. We have no control whatsoever over images on other servers.

The moderators do not have access to swap images on FR's servers anyway.

[Lead Moderator]

I don't think you are understanding the way the posting of images works here on FR.

When a user posts an image, they aren't actually posting an image, but rather they are specifying, within an IMG HTML tag, where the image resides. We don't host the picture.

As such, if you see a photo that someone posted, and then later there is a different picture there, that means whoever controls that part of the server the picture was hosted on changed the picture. We have no control over that.

In this case, I think what happened is that someone was hosting a copy of the picture and then when it came out that it was a fake being taken as a real photo, they replaced the file with a different picture so as to stop the spread of the picture.

Regards, LM

[Britton J Wingfield]

The one with kerry sitting 2 rows behind fonda in the audience is the real one.

The one showing kerry and fonda on the same stage, with kerry apparently sitting, is fake.

[Spiff]

Flooding the internet with fake photos would be a great way to discredit the real one. I hope that people can restrain themselves.

Which is precisely what I told Registered. There are enough authentic photos and truthful stories to sink John Kerry. We don't need a bunch of fakes muddying the waters and confusing the issue. The Kerry campaign would latch onto it in a heartbeat to discredit the legitimate stuff.

[Jim Robinson]

The parody image was made by combining the two images linked in post number 37 above.

[Callahan]

Could have fooled me!

[veronica]

Here's one I found of Kerry and Jane Fonda. Do you think it's a fake??

[Porterville]

FreeRepublic is Strong!!!

[Cuttnhorse]

Good on you and some of the other FReepers for getting to the bottom of this.

I don't think Registered will appologize...but then I will never believe anything he posts, ever.