Thursday, October 18, 2007

Say "Cheese"



Pictures of politicians are interesting. Remember how good Nancy Pelosi used to look in most pictures on progressive and liberal blogs? Now the pictures I see of her make her look as if she is suffering from indigestion. Pictures of Reid are likewise suddenly of a grumpy guy. All this is obvious, but I'm not sure that the fact the pictures are selected to further a thesis is as clear to our brains when we click on a webpage. Has anyone studied the impact of these visual "disapproval/approval" devices?

Then there is this picture of Hillary Clinton:





It is attached to an article about how well she is polling, an article which implies that the people who like her like her for all the wrong reasons. Or in short: Only white men vote logically. Everyone else votes on illogical gender and race grounds and should probably not be allowed to vote at all.

Ann Coulter started that meme, but it has recently been taken up by Cliff May on Tucker Carlson's show. It's fascinating how all that goes: The arguments seeping slowly from the extreme fringe of the conservatives towards the mainstream conversation.