Peter Bronson's Posting of a Fake Al Franken Gains National Attention

Yesterday I chose to highlight a piece by one of my fellow contributors at the Cincinnati Beacon. The Dean of Cincinnati's piece discussed how Cincinnati Enquirer columnist Peter Bronson, posted a blog entry to make fun of Al Franken and within that entry, posted a fake photo of Franken in a diaper and bunny ears. That fake photograph had been debunked in 2006 by ThinkProgress and even by the Cincinnati Enquirer itself, but that didn't stop Bronson from using the image in his post.

Bronson at first defended his posting the photo because it "resonates" with people because many can "see Franken that way", but later posted another entry which said that it is not policy to post images that are known to be fake. In addition to all of this, Bronson has apparently deleted the original post (and all of the subsequent comments) from the Enquirer's website to wipe the record clean, so to speak.

Since the Cincinnati Beacon initially published their piece on this issue, the story has taken off and received national attention and criticism from:

Editor and Publisher
Poynter Online
Eschaton, Atrois
MinnPost.com
John McIntyre
Talking Points Memo
MNCampainReport
Daily Kos
and ThinkProgress
(Not to mention this blog) just to name a few.

Bronson has made an addition to his follow up post (where he links to the suddenly "unavailable" original entry) saying: "Note: Link above no longer works -- we're not sure why. Checking on it." Let me help Peter, it isn't there anymore because you deleted it.

Lucky for us ThinkProgress provided a link to a JPG screenshot of the original post that you can find by clicking here.

Yesterday I noted that it was ironic that Bronson had posted an item on how the media has unfairly attacked Sarah Palin and today it even gets better.

Bronson has a new post where he says that he is getting tough with the mean commentors who comment on his blog. Bronson says the following:

So far, I've tried ignoring the blog version of mean drunks. That's not working. The other day I heard again from one of the visitors who said he just couldn't stand the nasty tone and vicious personal attacks here. He's not the first customer to be driven away by the pit bulls on this playground.

So it's time to bang a shot-glass on the bartop and issue a warning: Clean it up, or the bouncer will come to your table. And he won't be taking an order.

In bartending, we called that the "86" -- a code to cut someone off who has obviously had way too much to drink. You start be ingoring them, and if that doesn't work, you show them the door.

Some of you -- and you know who you are -- are long over due for an 86.

So from here out, I will alert the bouncers and eject anyone who hijacks the discussion with below-the-belt personal punches.

[...]

Name-calling and insults show a lack of maturity and intellect. They have no place in an adult discussion.

Maybe someone can help me. Does posting a fake picture of Al Franken in a diaper with rabbit ears, qualify as showing a lack of maturity or intellect?