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?

Peter Bronson Gets Busted for Posting a Photoshopped Picture of Al Franken...and Then Deletes the Entire Post

I have written criticisms of Cincinnati Enquirer columnist and blogger, Peter Bronson, in the past but this time will highlight an item that was posted by The Dean of Cincinnati over at The Cincinnati Beacon. (Full disclosure: I also contribute to the Cincinnati Beacon.)

Last week, Bronson posted a blog entry on July 1 saying that the joke was actually on Minnesota for electing Al Franken as their Senator. (I will address why I am not linking directly to his original entry in a moment). In his post Bronson wrote:

The new Franken-Senate may not be as congenial as his old cast and crew on Saturday Night Live. There will be defections, rejections, betrayals and walk-outs. And if they let Franken be Franken, he might embarrass his party and become a kick-me sign on the back of Democrats at election time. Meanwhile, Democrats are now running the federal Titanic and can no longer blame the icebergs on Republicans.

Or Franken might surprise us and become a pretty good Senator. (Cue the canned laughter.)

For now, if Republicans can find their misplaced sense of humor, there must be some great ads to be made from Franken’s clips and quips. Such as:

Is this who you want making decisions about your health care?

and then posted this picture:



As the Cincinnati Beacon pointed out, the only problem is that the photo was photoshopped (not by Bronson) and was debunked in 2006 by Think Progress. Ironically, a reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer also posted a piece debunking this photo in 2006. The Dean of Cincinnati wrote to Bronson and the Enquirer the following:

Dear Mr. Bronson,

I am writing to inform you that your recent blog item, “Minnesota - the joke is on you,” includes information that has been thoroughly debunked in 2006—and interestingly the information was debunked by Jon Craig on the Politics Extra blog. I would like to request formally, therefore, a correction and an apology on your blog for misleading your readers.

You included a photo of Al Franken where he appeared to be holding a stuffed animal and wearing diapers. However, that is a doctored photo. Here’s the proof from your own news organization: http://tinyurl.com/p2oftv

You introduced this doctored photo without making any indication of its status as a fake. In fact, you suggested otherwise: “For now, if Republicans can find their misplaced sense of humor, there must be some great ads to be made from Franken’s clips and quips.” The phrase “Franken’s clips and quips” indicates that Franken owns the “clip” you provided, namely the doctored photo. But that is not true. The picture is a fake, and your item totally misleads your readers—unacceptable even for a columnist.

Please advise what steps you intend to take to remedy the situation, and I look forward to reading your reply.

Respectfully,

[The Dean of Cincinnati]

So in the comment section of the original post, Bronson then posted:

PeterBronson wrote:

Yes, the photo of Franken in a diaper was apparently altered. But it’s not exactly a big reach to believe it could have come from one of his SNL skits. It resonates because people find it easy to see Franken that way.

7/6/2009 10:46 AM EDT

Interesting response that seems to justify Bronson's posting of the fake image in the first place..."It resonates because people find it easy to see Franken that way." That argument can be made to justify the posting of all sorts of inappropriate items, but I digress.

After this story was picked up by numerous other blogs, Bronson posted another entry entitled "Changing Al Franken's Diaper" in which he wrote:

Last week I posted a blog about comedian Al Franken joining the Senate (here), including a picture of Franken wearing bunny ears and a diaper.

Franken did many things on Saturday Night Live that could be embarrassing to a Senator. But apparently, that was not one of them. It turns out the picture was photoshopped.

We don't knowingly run false pictures, so I took it down and replaced it with another goofy picture of Sen. Franken.

So he replaced the one image in his original post with a new image. Apparently what Bronson meant by this, is that he would delete all evidence of the original posting by deleting that blog entry, which is what Bronson did. He actually links back to his original entry within the text of his corrected entry, but it jumps to this page.

So to recap, Peter Bronson posted a photoshopped picture (that was debunked in 2006)of Al Franken in order to make fun of his election to the Senate. Bronson gets caught by The Dean of Cincinnati who writes about the issue and writes a letter to Bronson asking for a correction. Bronson posts a comment in the original thread that admits that the picture was photoshopped, but justifies that it "resonates" with people because many can see Franken in that manner. After the item gets reposted and linked to at other blogs, Bronson posts another entry as a half-apology for posting a fake image and completely deletes the original entry from the record.

and this is the same guy who just posted an entry about the so-called "liberal media" unfairly attacking Sarah Palin.