Friday, April 01, 2005

One Golden Fraud? (oldie)

In a February 21, 2004 Lawrence Journal-World editorial entitled "Deception" (which, incidentally, borrowed liberally from a Tim Rutten column entitled "Now smear this: a Web of deceit" in the February 18, 2004 issue of The Los Angeles Times), the following claim was made:

"Then there was a doctored photo showing Kerry, a decorated and thrice-wounded Vietnam Navy veteran, sitting with Jane Fonda, the controversial actress reviled by many for her wartime sentiments." Further, "the picture was circulated widely over the Internet and even made some newspapers, false as it was."

There was a doctored photo that showed Kerry seated while Fonda stood behind a podium. However, the photo of Kerry and Fonda sitting together was not doctored. It was taken by photojournalist Leif Skoogfors at a September 7, 1970 Vietnam Veterans Against the War rally in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and can be found and licensed at Corbis. The Kerry campaign has confirmed that Kerry was a speaker at the rally. The New York Times covered the rally and reported that Jane Fonda was also a speaker.

The same Journal-World editorial suggested that "the various media think they have a credibility problem." Gee, I can't imagine why that would be.

The Journal-World never published a correction concerning this editorial.