Thread: Can Anyone Answer This?

Originally Posted by HNSB

I don't understand why the smoke is a big deal. Real smoke or not doesn't change the point of the photo.

Not the point. Or rather, not the reason why they released the picture. I think eveyrone gets the intent.
However, even I -as a layman- find that the pic looks doctored, or at least 'off'.
They should have anticipated that, and taken a picture of him actually firing the gun. Or rather, regardless of whether this pic is real or not, they should have made sure it also looked real.

Because now it looks doctored, and people will start looking for motivations behind the doctoring. Was it a matter of convenience (take one pic and then color in the smoke later) or was it because Obama didn't want to shoot / could not shoot properly (and was embarassed about it) or was it real but just a bad picture, or was it because something else entirely.

Regardless of what the actual message was and whether the pic is real or not, his media team should have anticipated the scrutiny and made damn sure that the pic showed what it was meant to show and prevent embarassing questions.