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Politics

"A Tour of the World's Worst Photoshop Propaganda"

Jesse Walker | 7.15.2011 5:05 PM

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A great gallery at The Atlantic.

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Jesse Walker is books editor at Reason and the author of Rebels on the Air and The United States of Paranoia.

PoliticsPropaganda
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  1. heller   15 years ago

    #15 Dead

    1. JW   15 years ago

      Did you manage to catch their "20th anniversary" Doolittle tour about a year ago?

      1. heller   15 years ago

        Sadly, no.

  2. Joshua Corning   15 years ago

    Funny how LA times photoshopping did not make the cut:

    http://www.photographyschoolso.....posite.jpg

    "Those crazy dictators shopping propaganda...oh wait the LA times does the same shit...opps"

    1. PS   15 years ago

      But that well done Photoshop propoganda...

  3. Jay Carney   15 years ago

    Hold on... I'm taking notes here.

    1. Ed Schultz   15 years ago

      Need a pencil, Jay?

      1. Shucks, I don't need notes...   15 years ago

        ...I no longer ask questions.

  4. Really Dark Orenthal   15 years ago

    remember me?

  5. Had To Be Said   15 years ago

    I'm shocked. Shocked.

    1. Beyonce   15 years ago

      Now that make you really really light

  6. Bernieyeball   15 years ago

    Pre Photoshop propaganda photo.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F....._Woods.jpg

    1. Hugh Akston   15 years ago

      You try holding that pose for 18.5 minutes.

  7. sevo   15 years ago

    "(are there any Stalin-era photos on the web?),"
    Yep:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R....._Reichstag
    Made those pesky 'extra' watches go away.

    1. Bar Student   15 years ago

      I don't think that one is any different than re-staging the Iwo Jima flag raising and both are some of the best pictures ever taken.

      1. A Serious Man   15 years ago

        How about when Stalin airbrushed Nikolai Yekhov out of existence? That's like the Mona Lisa of Stalinist propaganda.

        1. Otto   15 years ago

          It wasn't just Yekhov...

          1. heller   15 years ago

            He airbrushed your link out of existence too?

          2. Joshua Corning   15 years ago

            You link is broken

            1. Aresen   15 years ago

              Otto is related to Sugarfree?

              1. Otto   15 years ago

                Oops. Here's the non-broken version...

      2. sevo   15 years ago

        "I don't think that one is any different than re-staging the Iwo Jima flag raising and both are some of the best pictures ever taken."

        I'd suggest you read the article. It wasn't a 'reposing' for dramatic effect; it was an attempt to hide the looting by the Red Army.

        1. Bar Student   15 years ago

          Doesn't change my mind, looting was common among all the factions. It wasn't like the guys erased from history like mentioned above. Plus it is 60 years later now, I don't care what the soviets did back then. The picture is fantastic from a purely aesthetic view.

          1. sevo   15 years ago

            "looting was common among all the factions."
            True, but other "factions" didn't bother to retouch photos to hide it.

            "I don't care what the soviets did back then."
            'Those who fail to learn from history...'

            "The picture is fantastic from a purely aesthetic view."
            So long as you accept it's been 'photo-shopped' to look like that.

          2. Almanian   15 years ago

            from a purely aesthetic view

            Sure, and Leni Riefenstahl won a lot of awards for "A Triumph of the Will", too. True story.

            /kind-of-Godwin

  8. Bernieyeball   15 years ago

    Looks to me like her left hand is glued to the telephone, her right hand is glued to the chair arm and her shoes are glued to the floor.
    That oughta do it.

  9. Marty Feldman's Eyes   15 years ago

    From our own lovely DARPA, for the "High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System" program.

    At first I thought it had to have been a joke, but that *was* the actual picture from DARPA's own website; it has since been changed to something a little blander.

    On the one hand, I'm glad to see that not a dime of the $40 million budget for the HELLADS project is not being wasted on professional CGI publicity shots. On the other hand, I'm not sure that they should be letting 10 year olds play around on their computers, as obviously happened in this case.

    1. Georgie   15 years ago

      Artist's impression.

      1. Almanian   15 years ago

        That is some quality dancin' there.

        Also, that's SugarFree-level brutality - slap a warning on that thing!

  10. Paul   15 years ago

    Loaded question: Why do they all come out of China or the Middle East?

    1. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee   15 years ago

      Oh, I think we all know the answer.

  11. Otto   15 years ago

    Well, this makes me feel better about the kind of crap I've done over at Urkobold.

    Oh, and here's my answer to Representative Lee.

    1. Pro Libertate   15 years ago

      Crap? Au contraire, mon fr?re.

      1. rather   15 years ago

        I'd consider it more little boy diarrhea

        1. Spencer   15 years ago

          Is that better or worse than grown man diarrhea?

      2. Otto   15 years ago

        Thank you, sir. I probably should have said something like "were I trying to pretend they were real" to avoid false modesty. If I really thought they were valueless, I wouldn't have posted them, and I sure wouldn't have linked to them here.

    2. Almanian   15 years ago

      That's some good stuff

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