Discussion for article #230794
He’s just taking up the slack left by the high command:
Based on the carefully selected photo, TPM must have some inside dope that the perp was black? Or is that just the obvious assumption? Why this pic otherwise?
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CPO Balbricker will get to the bottom of this…
Never, ever, assume that the pictures on TPM have any connection with the stories they accompany. TPM has a collection of stock photos that they pull up for stories on a free-association, stream-of-consciousness basis.
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I want to see the evidence before I make up my mind on this one.
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Someone selected this photo, which is my point. Like headlines they should represent at least a modicum of reasonable consideration. It’s a lousy choice.
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Pfft. Stock photos are fine, as long as they do not misrepresent the story, IMHO.
Seriously!?! You use a picture of white/asian (the new white folks) and a black man to illustrate a story of sexual predation? Seriously?!? You did this despite writing stories about the myth of the black male boogie man, how white perceive African American men and then you slam this pernicious image of the black male beast stalking light skinned women. Oh for gawd’s sake.
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I’m not arguing that it’s not a lousy choice. I’m trying to tell you that there’s no rational basis for the choice. Doubtless their stock photos are kept in directories with generic headings, like “guns”, “navy” “national parks”, etc., etc. The person who pulls the artwork probably doesn’t read anything but the headline, and the person who writes the headline probably doesn’t read anything but the lede. So the person who selects the artwork is probably at least two steps removed from the story.
Now an AP photo accompanying an AP article may be related to the story, but for articles written by TPM staff, the likelihood of the picture matching the content of the story is about the same as being struck by lightning.
At least they finally stopped using the picture of the gun with blanks with stories about “accidental” shootings and the picture of the B-52 dropping conventional with stories about nuclear ballistic missiles. Or possibly just the result of the random rotation.
The one I remember most vividly was the story about the alleged rape at the Naval Academy. The picture accompanying it showed two swabbies standing guard with the USS Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor in the background. I can only guess at the thought processes that went into the selection: Naval Academy → Navy → ships → sailors → ah, here’s one with sailors in it – that’ll do.
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It’s not a “they”, it’s an illustrator or whatever the post is called at TPM, which is not a humongous corporation with a gazillion of them. How many does TPM have? Does this person or these people have their head completely in the sand, not to know at least in general the trending topics and to have at least some notion of the cultural factors blatantly trumpeted everywhere? If TPM were Faux I’d agree, fine, SOP; it’s some poor jerk who doesn’t know and/or doesn’t care that s/he is contributing to an offensive meme. And I wouldn’t bother posting a comment that just might make that person think a bit the next time.