Posted on 12/12/2010 5:57:01 PM PST by kristinn
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin traveled to Haiti this weekend as a guest of the Rev. Franklin Graham and Samaritan's Purse to spotlight the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the earthquake and cholera-stricken Caribbean (half an) island nation. Instead she has found herself embroiled in a scandal, accused of bringing a hair stylist on the trip to make herself look good for the cameras and "photo-ops.".
The Associated Press transmitted a photo from Haiti of Palin captioned, "Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, center, has her hair done during a visit to a cholera treatment center set up by the NGO Samaritan's Purse in Cabaret, Haiti, Saturday Dec. 11, 2010. Palin arrived Saturday in Haiti as part of a brief humanitarian mission. Dieu Nalio Chery / AP"
That photo and caption set off rabid attacks on Palin from the Huffington Post, the U.K.'s Daily Mail and, of course, Palingates.
The photo does indeed show Sarah Palin standing with her husband Todd as a woman whose face is obscured uses two hands to fix the hair on the right side of Palin's head.
However, one can observe that the woman is white, with her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, wearing a white shirt with a bulky scarf and dark pants.
In other photos from Saturday, Todd and Sarah Palin's white, brunette, eldest daughter Bristol, who accompanied her parents on the trip to Haiti, is wearing the exact same clothing and ponytail as the "hair stylist" in the AP photo.
That's right, what the Palin-hating AP and others fail to report is that the "hair stylist" is Bristol Palin.
The AP photographer who sent the caption would have known that it was Bristol Palin, but by not mentioning her the AP was able to do a media hit on Palin but still be able to claim they told the "truth" with the caption.
The Palins and the Grahams in Haiti ("hair stylist" Bristol second from right):
Palin "has her hair done":
Photos via Palingates
The Daily Mail titled their story based on the AP photo and caption, Ready for Her Close Up...Sarah Palin Lands in Haiti (where they don't care what her hair looks like)
The Huffington Post titled their attack on Palin, Reading the Pictures: Palin Does Haiti Cholera: How's My Hair (and did AP lend a curl?). The AP reference in the headline is based on speculation in the article about whether the AP ran "scathing photo op-defying pictures of "the Sarah show?""
The raving lunatics at Palingates titled their hit piece, BREAKING NEWS: Palin Looks Good in Haiti.
To reiterate, a daughter helps fix a loose strand of her mother's hair, and it becomes an international scandal. Amazing.
I’m with you... way hot!
Dec. 15 response in Big Journalism.
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