AP Deliberately Captions Palin Haiti Photo to Cast Her As Self-Conscious Celeb

December 15th, 2010 10:55 AM

Maybe we need to add the word "Palinography" to the dictionary. Its definition would be: "The process of preparing news photographs and accompanying captions about Sarah Palin in a deliberately negative light."

One example many will likely remember involved the amateurish wire service shoes-and-calves-only photos frequently seen during Palin's vice-presidential run.

Lori Ziganto at the Daily Caller's DC Trawler flagged the latest outrage, which is shown below (direct link):

APpalininhaiti

The caption reads:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, center, has her hair done during a visit to a cholera treatment center set up by the NGO Samaritan's Purse in Cabaret, Haiti, Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010. Palin arrived Saturday in Haiti as part of a brief humanitarian mission in an impoverished nation struggling to overcome post-election violence and a cholera epidemic. At right, Palin's husband, Todd Palin.

Do you mean that this woman, in the midst of all the disease and misery, is worrying about her hair? How could she?

Ziganto exposes the Palinography (internal link is in original; bolds are mine):

What the photographer purposely neglects to mention is that the woman fixing Palin’s hair is her daughter, Bristol. She is clearly seen in the following photograph, as also noted by Free Republic, (where poster Kristinn wrote): "In other photos from Saturday, Todd and Sarah Palin’s white, brunette, eldest daughter Bristol, who accompanied her parents on the trip to Haiti, is wearing the exact same clothing and ponytail as the “hair stylist” in the AP photo. That’s right, what the Palin-hating AP and others fail to report is that the “hair stylist” is Bristol Palin.

 

Bristol Palin was fixing a loose clip or an errant strand of hair for her mother. The photographer quite clearly knew that, having taken the picture and having actually looked through the lens at the people whose photo he was taking. He managed to identify Todd Palin, yet purposely did not identify Bristol.

 

... There are a couple of things clearly on display here. Firstly, the oh-so-tolerant and loving Left is anything but. It’s far easier to mock and bash Sarah Palin than to actually, you know, do anything to help. Secondly, their blatant sexism, particularly against conservative women (femininity with smarts and strength is icky), has once again been exposed for all to see.

Ziganto adds another salient point near the end of her post:

Sarah Palin is the one with the spine; Bill Clinton, in fact, canceled his planned trip to Haiti because it was too scary.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.