Did you catch the complete devastation of the Herseth Sandlin campaign wrought by Dakota War College this week? On Wednesday, conservative blogger Pat Powers borrowed a photo of the Congresswoman, stripped it of context, pasted it next to Michael Dukakis's tank shot, and exulted, Look! They're both wearing helmets! She's a loser!
Ah ha ha ha ha ha! Ah ha ha ha—oh, wait. Let's put the context back, shall we?
The full photo (uncredited and unlinked on DWC) appeared in the Brookings Register on Wednesday.
It shows Congresswoman Herseth Sandlin on a visit home to Brookings County last Friday. She went to Spanish wind energy company Iberdrola's Buffalo Ridge wind farm got her picture taken atop the nacelle of one of the turbines. She climbed 25 stories to get there.
25 stories. I wonder how many of the DWC commenters so mirthfully deriving irrational conclusions from the photo about SHS's fitness for office have the fitness to hike to the top of that turbine, climb out on the nacelle, and take a picture themselves.
Oh yeah, the news accompanying the photo pointed out that Spanish wind-energy Iberdrola estimates its wind farms have generated over 1700 construction and related jobs and established 64 permanent jobs in South Dakota alone.
But Dakota War College wouldn't want to highlight the benefits of green jobs for South Dakota. Heavens no. A picture and a silly visual association are much more interesting, much more informative... much more soothing to a conservative worldview that's getting kicked in the head daily by the facts.
I'm a photographer. It makes me very concerned that bloggers copy any image they want and publish as part of their content. Boys and girls, there is a thing called copyright. You can have you site shut down with a simple letter from the copyright holder to your ISP. How much trouble you get in all depends on how vigorous the photographer defends his copyright.
ReplyDeleteYou can use the "fair use" doctrine to justify your actions, BUT if your site is down, that won't really mater. According to the Digital Millennium Copyright ACT, a copyright holder can send letters to your website host demanding that they take down the offending material if you decide not to.
Is this one of those slow days where you substitute mewling for content?
ReplyDeleteThank you for redespinning Pat, Cory.
ReplyDeleteIn this post, I don't see mewling, but some great calling out of sophomoric humor. Powers is pwn'd!
ReplyDeleteI knew Pat would say mewling...
ReplyDeletePat, you're starting to suffer Sibby Syndrome, where your predictable responses include blindly accusing those who disagree with you of doing exactly what you did. I invite readers to review the original DWC post and my response and tell me who's focused on content.
And slow day? Not with wind power news like this.
ReplyDeleteGreat job on giving us the rest of the story Cory.
ReplyDelete