Mr. Kaloogian, a former state assemblyman, is one of 18 candidates running for the San Diego Congressional seat vacated when Representative Randy Cunningham, a Republican, resigned and later went off to prison after being convicted of taking $2.4 million in bribes.
The color photograph shows a bustling street corner with a variety of shops, billboards and fashionably dressed pedestrians. The caption reads, "Iraq (including Baghdad) is much more calm and stable than what many people believe it to be. But each day, the news media finds any violence occurring in the country and screams and shouts about it — in part because many journalists are opposed to the U.S. effort to fight terrorism."
It turns out that the photo was taken in a suburb of Istanbul last summer by a member of a group Mr. Kaloogian led to the Middle East in support of President Bush. Mr. Kaloogian said photos taken by the party had been mixed up.
The unraveling of the error began on the Web log of Joshua M. Marshall (www.talkingpointsmemo.com) and a related site, www.TPMmuckraker.com.
Martin Kaplan, a professor of popular culture at the University of Southern California, said he watched it with delight.
"It demonstrates that there's a reserve army of unpaid researchers ready to mobilize at a moment's notice," Professor Kaplan said. "I call this one C.S.I. Baghdad."
Please don't tell me Ed Rollins is advising Howard.
A simple mistake that could happen to anybody. If an indadvertently mislabeled photograph is the best shot the Left can come up with, Kalogan should win in a landslide.
Internet researchers spotting and blowing whistle on incorrect stories are an nonpartisan phenomenon (or more accurately, partisans of both sides are ready to tackle on any perceived inaccuracy and falsehood). Right-wing, left-wing, liberals, conservatives... Nobody can feed blatantly false data to public any more. A Net-positive development, IMHO.
Upper picture is photograph on Howard Kaloogian Web site that the candidate says he took of a peaceful scene in Baghdad. But bloggers produced the lower photo, of the same scene, which is in a suburb of Istanbul, Turkey. Kaloogian calls it a photo mix-up.
By Bill Ainsworth UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER March 30, 2006
SACRAMENTO – During his congressional campaign, Howard Kaloogian has portrayed himself as an aggressive conservative willing to go the extra mile, or in this case, 7,000 miles, to show that the war in Iraq is going well.
But a funny thing happened on the way back from Baghdad – at least according to Kaloogian: His group stopped in Istanbul, their pictures got confused and now he's at the center of a national Internet photo scandal.
Web photo questioned
For weeks, Kaloogian's campaign Web site featured a photo of a peaceful city block to help make his case that things are going well in Iraq.
“We took this photo of Baghdad while we were in Iraq,” the caption accompanying the photo read. “Iraq (including Baghdad) is much more calm and stable than what many people believe it to be.”
There was one problem with the photo. It wasn't Baghdad. It was a suburb of Istanbul, Turkey.
Kaloogian's explanation that it was an innocent mix-up isn't being bought by bloggers across the nation who uncovered the bogus photo.
Some of them believe he's guilty of what he's accused the mainstream media of doing: slanting the news to fit his own beliefs.
“The simplest explanation is that he lied to prove that Baghdad is this wonderful suburban safe place,” said Tamara Baker, a St. Paul, Minn., resident who followed the story on liberal Internet blogs.
After he was snared in an Internet frenzy, Kaloogian acknowledged the problem yesterday and took the photo down from his Web site.
“They used a picture that was wrong. There's nothing sinister about it,” Kaloogian said.
Kaloogian, a former assemblyman, is the founder of a group called Move America Forward, dedicated to supporting the Iraq War.
In July, he took a 10-day trip to publicize what he said was the positive news out of Iraq, now the scene of daily sectarian violence.
During his trip, he announced his candidacy for the 50th Congressional District seat.
Kaloogian said the mistake occurred because some of the people on the trip, which included conservative radio talk-show hosts, went home through Istanbul. All the group members pooled their photos. Kaloogian said his Web master selected a photo of Istanbul.
Bloggers began questioning the photo Tuesday night.
It didn't look like Iraq.
None of the signs were in Arabic. A woman was wearing Western clothes. Billboards were advertising Western products.
The issue bounced from blog to blog, mostly among liberals.
Finally, yesterday morning, a participant at the DailyKos blog found a photograph confirming that the photo was taken in a suburb of Istanbul.
Joshua Marshall, operator of a center/left blog called Talking Points Memo, said the incident undermines Kaloogian's view that the mainstream media isn't telling the truth and needs correcting from conservatives.
“He's saying, 'Believe me, I've been there.' But it makes him seem like a joke,” Marshall said.
The incident shows the strength of bloggers, he said.
“It shows the amazing power of distributed journalism, where you get a few hundred people researching this at the same time and someone comes up with the answer right away,” Marshall said.
Kaloogian isn't just getting criticism from bloggers on the left.
Last month, Matt Rexroad, a Sacramento Republican consultant who operates a blog called Cal Races, criticized Kaloogian for inaccurately listing an endorsement from the California Pro-Life Council.
Rexroad once worked for state Sen. Bill Morrow, R-Oceanside, who is running for the same 50th District seat.
Kaloogian, in an interview, admitted that the California Pro-Life Council had not endorsed him and he removed the endorsement listing.
Rexroad, who served in the Army in Iraq, also blasted Kaloogian, saying he announced his candidacy on the road from Baghdad to Kuwait City.
“As someone that has driven that highway many times – the last thing you need to be doing along that stretch of Iraq is announcing your candidacy for Congress. Keep your eyes open and your head on a swivel. The military personnel protecting him weren't there as security for his little mobile press conference,” Rexroad wrote.
Kaloogian said he announced his candidacy from his hotel.
Demand accountability of candidate Kaloogian! Especially in a special election only being held because of a congressman being imprisoned!