Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Yahoo

So who decides which news pictures get put on the Yahoo site? Whoever it is, I've noticed they have a fondness for catching the president's most bizarre facial expressions. You know the ones, the shutter opens and closes just when he is saying the "fuh" in "fine," and the result is an image that looks for all the world like Gomer Pile during the plunge phase of a prostate exam. So ok. Fine, I say.

But who decides which unflattering pictures make it? I wonder because I ran across the following picture when I was photoshopping blood onto the hands of the ACLU folks. Then, the next day, the picture had disappeared. 404 gone.





And you can see why. The angle makes her look like a little kid. An oddly dressed little kid, stretching to make it to the microphones. Cute, kinda. And that's why I saved the picture even though I didn't photoshop it. It's the contrast between the image and the event; look at the little girl, doing her best to facilitate innocents dying at the hands of terrorists. Awwww, isn't she precious?

Anyway, why is the picture gone now? because she requested it maybe? It's hard to imagine Yahoo honoring requests to take down images. Remember the image of Bush at the lectern, only the top half of his head showing? seems like that was a Yahoo picture for weeks. Or what about this guy:



You can't tell me he's not calling the Yahoo offices every ten minutes, begging them to 404 that image.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Be cautious on this. I had once thought that the MSM was removing stories and it turns out they were part of AP feeds that change by design. The pictures may be along the same lines. The AP automates feeds and references disappear automatically.

For an example of the MSM switch that isn't along those paths stop by and see these two blatant examples from the NY Times and the AP.

Webloggin:

http://www.webloggin.com/quiet-swap-ny-times-changed-late-edition-of-swift-bank-story-to-appear-more-objective/

and Blue Crab boulevard:

http://bluecrabboulevard.com/2006/06/27/recycling-stories-in-hopes-of-gaining-traction/

Terry,
Webloggin

lumberjack said...

Thanks, you may be right about Yahoo not being the 'decider' in these things. Someone pulled the lil-girl picture though.

Hey, good eye on that Times story change. Very subtle but telling changes, it seems. I've been getting visits from computers on the NYT network; hope they follow the link too.

[hey, you think they're surfing around looking for popular support on this issue? Hope they're prepared for disappointment]

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