The image on The Washington Post [see note below] website of the Restoring Honor rally today in Washington, D.C., reminded me of the advertising concept of subliminal seduction, where images are inserted into an advertisement in such a way as to send a message to the viewer without the viewer knowing it.
WaPo’s article about the rally carried a time stamp of 1:38 p.m., but the photo of a near empty crowd in front of the Lincoln Memorial clearly was taken long before the tens or hundreds of thousands of rally participants arrived.
The caption says “Glenn Beck Rally Draws Thousands,” but the photo is not of the rally.
Subliminal deception.
[Note: WaPo has updated the linked article, and as of 9:03 p.m. has a different photo and more photos showing the crowd. The screenshot above was taken at 1:38 p.m., and the same lead photo and image was on the website at least until after 2 p.m. Considering that the rally started at 10:00 a.m., at which time the area was packed, there was no excuse for WaPo using that photo for several hours.]
Update: Here’s what the crowd-shot looked like during the rally (Via):
Update 8-29-2010: Thanks to Ed Driscoll for this photoshop (those of us who read the original are dating ourselves). Subliminal Seduction was all the rage in the 1970s:
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Related Post:
Think Progress Forced To Fold At Restoring Honor Rally
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Comments
I have been seeing stories EVERYWHERE about this rally. This man is feared by the left for the facts that he brings to light, and will be targeted again and again in many different ways, both subliminal and overt.
I'd call it false advertising
pitiful, but predictable.
If Americans practice Faith, Hope and Charity, there is no need for Progressives. Hence the need to destroy Beck.
Another remarkable aspect of the coverage:
The Washington Post:
Claiming the legacy of the nation's Founding Fathers and repeatedly evoking civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., Beck, Sarah Palin and other speakers at the "Restoring Honor" rally exhorted a sprawling and overwhelmingly white crowd to concentrate not on the history that has scarred the nation but instead on what makes it "good."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/28/AR2010082801106.html?hpid=topnews
The New York Times:
“Something that is beyond man is happening,” Mr. Beck in opening the event as the overwhelmingly white crowd thronged near the memorial grounds. “America today begins to turn back to God.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/us/politics/29beck.html?hp
Goebbels could have hardly done better.
http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
"Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive"
And did you see the description of the crowd as "not visibly angry"?
These reporters are beyond belief.
The Freedom's Lighthouse blog has links to Sarah Palin's moving speech. I just finished watching it. On Part III, there is a brief wide angle shot looking from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Memorial at exactly the 5:13 mark. Both sides of the reflecting pool are jammed pack, and while it's hard to tell from the image, it appears that the area from the Washington Memorial to the reflecting pool is also packed.
http://freedomslighthouse.net/2010/08/28/sarah-palin-speech-at-glenn-becks-restoring-honor-rally-part-1-video-82810/
The WaPo photo pretending to depict the size of the rally is grossly misleading and distorts the story they are trying to tell. But it's consistent with the tactics used by WaPo employee and smear merchant Greg Sargent, whose headlines for his Sharron Angle stories rarely depict the substance of the stories told.
And they wonder why people distrust the media.
You know it's true, veryinterested. It's the difference in how we think. You or I would look at the crowd and say "look at all those people." A liberal would look at the very same crowd and say "why, look at all those white people."
In fact, I kind of suspect that would be the liberal response even if the demographics of the crowd matched the national demographics of America perfectly. Surveys have shown that the Tea Party movement demographics aren't that different from the American demographics, but that doesn't protect it from charges of racism or being "too white."
AP – Conservative commentator Glenn Beck and tea party champion Sarah Palin appealed Saturday to a vast, predominantly white crowd on the National Mall to help restore traditional American values and honor Martin Luther King's message. Civil rights leaders who accused the group of hijacking King's legacy held their own rally and march.
There's the spin. No anger, no protest signs, no Obama = Hitler. Their one mistake: being white.
When I posted about the rally on Facebook my liberal friends started railing, proclaiming Beck as an "Idiot". I asked if they were in attendance or had ever listened to Beck and they replied that they wouldn't listen to a racist buffoon, wouldn't waste their valuable time on him, so forth and so on. One even commented that all Beck says is "blahbla blah blah blabba blah" and cries alot. That, to me, is a sure sign of a corner turned. Today, I am proud to be an American!
Based on that birds-eye view picture, I would estimate a crowd of thousands of hundreds.
I used to work at a newspaper and I find it incredibly hard to believe that a picture like that would be put up without someone asking about its appropriateness. It is easier to believe that this is a conscious attempt to make the rally look foolish, to convince people the headline is a joke.
I like your blog.
Seems you visited mine?
http://bacpro620.na710n.com/2010/01/19/ma-senate-race/
There's an effective way to counteract things like the photo, but – consistent with all the rest – the 'partier types don't know what it is and aren't willing or capable of learning.
Must have been hundreds (of thousands) *cough* *cough* of "activists" there complete with racist Porta-Potties and stuff and… and… white people arm in arm with black people.
A spectacle meant to incite! (prayer …shhh)
NYT's Bob Herbert went foaming-at-the-mouth stark raving postal and that was the day before the rally. lol
I think he hyppie ventilated… poor thing.
I was there, the photo is taken from the area of the Washington monument and the area immediately in front of it leading down to the WWII memorial (the fountains) was well filled from 11am when I arrived until after 1pm. I would guess that the WaPo photo was taken long before 11.
The full tilt slant is now set. Only WAPO reported Sharpton's rally as predominantly african-american. Frankly, I don't care. Every race, sex and creed was represented on that stage. Enough already.
We thought it would be fun to look at the August 28 DC Rally crowd estimates from around the media and from political leaning. So Far we have estimates for 1000 to 500 thousand.
Just as you would think, the lower numbers come from the left and the higher numbers come from the right. If you are a moderate you probably have it about right.
http://politisite.com/2010/08/28/glenn-beck-restoring-honor-rally-crowd-estimates/
Another Macaca moment for the Washington Ghost.
I am as critical of MSM as anybody with a brain is, but your criticism here is off-base.
First, when I go to the linked page, that's not the picture that shows.
Second, the article has a photo GALLERY of 30 images, of which the top picture you have here seems to be the 21st.
And third, the gallery also has a shot comparable to the second photo you have here; it's the 14th image there. There are several other crowd shots in the gallery that clearly show the huge size of the crowd.
MSM can be rightly pilloried every minute of every day for many things, but not, I think, WaPo for what you accuse them of here and now.
Please reconsider this post.
@ELC – see the Note I added to the post in response to your comment. WaPo has updated its article. The fact remains that throughout much of the day WaPo used the misleading photo as its primary photo which appeared next to the article.
When I looked at WaPo they had that photo & that caption. It does indeed appear that they're trying to give the impression that not many people were there. However, the same photo is in the WaPo gallery. There the caption indicates that the photo is of tourists there on Friday.
I've seen estimates of 87,000, of 300,000 & of 500,000 people. I saw 1,600 for Sharpton's rally. With those numbers there could easily have been more blacks at Beck's rally, even if the crowd was "overwhelmingly white."
The original photo was taken on FRIDAY according to the caption now in the gallery. Pretty "careless" of the Post to imply that it illustrated a Saturday event.
The last honest liberal was Scoop Jackson!!!
Talk about subliminal – well, in your face subliminal – check this out:
Fox sports website posted an AP story with photo: http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/st.louis cardinals-albert-pujols-honored-at-glenn-beck-rally-082810
Maybe it's me, but it sure looks like the Palin photo was purposely selected (of course it was!!) – Could the AP be suggesting……ummm; Sarah von Braun??
I'm overwhelmingly white. I just looked in the mirror. Should I feel bad about this? Why is that when Americans gather the left ALWAYS goes for the race card? Pathetic.
ELC . . . quit trolling.
Remember when they used to call us teabaggers?
What happened to that?
I'll tell you what happened in California. Previously the media websites would edit comments discussing proposition 8 because we the great unwashed masses are not allowed to use terms like homo or queer, but after their own reporters started using "tea bagger" liberally on their op/ed pages, the folks adopted this euphemism and applied it in it's accurate context, when discussing prop 8.
Likewise, since the medias want to describe us as the "overwhelmingly white crowd", I suggest we refer to the MSM as the "overwhelmingly racist media", up until they desist from their anti-social behavior.
Didn't see this post before I posted mine, or I would have tracked back.
Asphyxiophilia. It's the only explanation.
Regards,
Ric
If you google "predominantly white" the bias is even more apparent.
Predominantly racist media, or PRM. Use it for all your newspaper comment occasions!
I like the tit for tat strategy regarding words in the last few comments.
Classic game theory.
Thank God for the overwhelmingly white people of the Tea Party- if not for them, very very very few people would disagree with Obama, the Democratic party and its overwhelmingly corrupt lackey, the LSM.
There is no need for being too defensive here about how most Tea partiers are white –
So what if most of them are white? This has got to be the response. Instead people are getting into a tizzy here.
If the entire black community agreed with Glenn Beck, whites WOULD STILL be the overwhelming members of the Tea party – what will the MSM say then ?? 90% of the Tea Party is WHITE will be the screamer….
If large sections of non white people find conservatism or the Tea party movement racist,disagreeable or what ever, don't fret about it. It is what it is. Deal with it.
The race card will be played by liberals till the end of time – it can never max out for them like it happens in a Jon Stewart comedy routine.
Kinda' hate to break this "news" to WAPO, but our nation IS "overwhelmingly" or "predominately" white. 75% I believe is a good round percentile.
That is NOT "racist". What it IS, IS "fact".
Even the picture published of the actual event looks to be from the top of the Washington monument. This pic excludes all the people which apparently stood between the WWII memorial and the Washington monument. I would like to see an aerial which shows the whole crowd so we can get an idea of its size.
"Overwhelmingly white" to me is just DANGERSPEAK to stir up people who are not white on the other side of the aisle, or not political in order to make them fear the "big angry DANGEROUS white lynch mob". The is no real rebuttal for conservatives against this kind of subliminal message other than to assert that the people reporting only see things in a racial light, and are race baiters, which they are. America has been hearing about race race race. The power of this kind of negative message must eventually die out.
@PaperTiger…
PRM? Brilliant ! its not only true… but it hits back at the real liberal racists who see everyone.. and anyone who disagrees with modern day liberalism as bigoted.
The only thing that the Tea Party movement now needs is a rock anthem :=)
Me thinks Rising Power – AC/DC would do justice :=)
Move over PRM – there is a new rising power out there and it will rock your world…upside down
Holy crap, are you people paranoid.
Something's happening here,
What it is, ain't exactly clear…
Wow, a bit sensitive here about references to the whiteness of the crowd? Here's why race was relevant when reporting on this rally: a) the date chosen was the anniversary of MLK's "I Have A Dream" speech and b) Beck's stated goal was to 'reclaim the civil rights movement' (for whom? from whom?). One cannot invoke MLK and the civil rights movement without also invoking race, and it is certainly notable and of interest that a predominately white crowd would gather on the Mall to do so.