Being someone who doesn't photograph so well, I'm currently feeling some empathy for Wendy Alexander. Her leadership bid seems to have given every newspaper an excuse to wheel out shockingly bad pictures of her in assorted open-gobbed glaikit looking poses.Whether she's any good or not, it's hardly fair to undermine a politician in this way. Furthermore, it's a bit less likely that this kind of tactic would be employed for a male candidate. Journalists often use "controversial" pictures, like Brown looking grumpy during a Blair speech, but these are different. It adds nothing to a story to show a female politician's back teeth. Get a grip, political editors, and leave such pictures for the diary page.
3 comments:
You must be kidding Alison, the photo of Wendy with her mouth wide open looks as if she was demonstrating the very hungry caterpillar to the media.
This kind of treatment is not just reserved to women. Alex Salmond has had it relentlessly both before and since being elected as First Minister of Scotland.
It's all about looks and not substance any more since the famous Kennedy v Nixon presidential debates in the 1960's. Those who watched the tv debate proclaimed Kennedy the winner because of his looks, but those who listened in on radio were more in favour of Nixon. Is this the fault of the media or is it just a reflection or our natural human instinct to make out judgements of others on how they look and not what they say?
Sure, Salmond appears in many photos eating pies, but that's not quite the same thing (plus, he usually poses for those!).
The Wendy photos are crap, and are clearly being used to undermine her - I'd rather people listened to what she says and then take a view on her credibility!
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