Reuters says: Bush Campaign Acknowledges Ad Was Doctored.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush’s campaign acknowledged on Thursday that a television ad depicting soldiers listening to Bush speak had been doctored so that some of the faces of the soldiers appear more than once.

Released five days before Election Day, the ad was called, “Whatever It Takes” and had been touted by Bush advisers as a personal message from the president talking about the war on terror.

It depicts Bush talking of his meetings with family members of fallen soldiers and saying the “hardest decision” he faced was the one to send soldiers into battle.

It then shows clips of people apparently listening to the president, including a crowd of soldiers. But some of the faces appear more than once in the image, which flashes across the screen as Bush vows to “never relent in defending America, whatever it takes.” …

The Kerry campaign said it was an example of the Bush administration’s dishonesty.

“Now we know why this ad is named ‘Whatever It Takes,”’ Kerry campaign senior adviser Joe Lockhart said in a statement. “This administration has always had a problem telling the truth from Iraq to jobs to healthcare.”

DOCTORED?

Excuse me for shouting, but this is the kind of nonsense that just makes me want to scream.

Here’s the ad in question: Whatever It Takes. Watch it. Reuters says “some of the faces appear more than once,” but in fact there is only one scene of a veteran looking into space that is repeated as part of a montage at the end of the ad.

This is called editing, and it is obviously the same person. To call this “doctored” is a gross misrepresentation. Reuters should be ashamed. But of course, they’re not; this is just another attempt to throw more garbage up against the wall and hope some of it sticks. We’re going to see more and more outrageous examples of this kind of distorted, blatantly dishonest reporting in the next five days.

UPDATE at 10/28/04 3:48:06 pm:

More details in this AP story, revealing that this brouhaha is even more ridiculous than it first appeared: Bush Campaign to Recut Doctored Ad. They weren’t talking about the veteran who appears twice, after all. They’re referring to a crowd scene that was altered to remove an image of Bush, again as part of a montage that was very obviously a multi-scene overlay.

This is a gigantic tempest in the world’s smallest teacup.

The photo of Bush addressing a group of soldiers was edited to remove both the president and the podium where he was standing. A group of soldiers in the crowd was electronically copied to fill in the space, aides say.

“There was no need to do that,” said Mark McKinnon, head of Bush’s advertising team who shouldered the blame. “Everyone technically works for me so I accept the responsibility.”

The original photograph shows a sea of soldiers sitting behind the president as he stands at a podium just left of the center of the frame.

UPDATE at 10/28/04 4:07:03 pm:

What a shocka! This mind-bendingly trivial story comes from the poison pen of Markos “Screw Them” Zuniga.

I do enjoy the image of him poring over the video frame by frame with a microscope, though.