Sarah Palin, at the pool, with a rifle?

Those Sarah Palin photos that were all over the Web on Wednesday, with the GOP vice presidential nominee in an American flag bikini, brandishing a rifle and a big open-mouthed smile that looks semi-loony given her get-up, have been debunked on David Emery's Urban Legends blog. Emery traced the body in question to a Georgia flickr user's account. Palin's head was photoshopped in.

My colleague David Sarno has already called for a ban on stories about monsters, aliens or supernatural phenomena supported only by a photo. I would like to extend that plea to include -- at least for the time being -- all Palin-related photo "evidence."

First we had photos of Palin looking not-pregnant used to support the theory that the Alaska governor faked being pregnant and giving birth to her 4 1/2-month-old son, Trig, to cover up for her 17-year-old daughter's actual pregnancy. (Which, if nothing else, attests to the degree to which "Mad Men" has entered into the cultural imagination -- the unwed-mom-baby-switch-with-a-relative story is right out of this season's Peggy Olson plot line.) Then a photo appeared of Palin looking pregnant right when she would have been eight months pregnant with Trig. At that point it was probably inevitable that some commenters still kept the skepticism alive.

Then came the spate of "hot Sarah Palin" photos, including a nude shot supposedly from her beauty pageant days that ran in a Taiwanese newspaper. That one was revealed as a hardy perennial that used to circulate claiming to be Julia Louis-Dreyfus in the raw.

Visual literacy is in a way much trickier than the reading kind. The idea that a picture's worth a thousand words doesn't mean any one of those words is actually true. Sadly enough, seeing is no longer believing.

The Palin story is generating striking images so quickly that it's even more important to look for some patient visual analysis.

And in the meantime I highly recommend watching the clever and funny Web series You Suck at Photoshop for a reminder of the sheer emotional power contained in that magical picture-changing software.

-- Maria Russo

Comments

[Clark]

I'm a bit concerned with the McCain/Palin energy policy (especially in regard to drilling in the ANWR). Given the state of the environment these days I think it is important for us, as consumers to support 'green business.' For example, http://www.simplestop.net stops your postal junk mail and benefits the environment.

[Brian Puckett]

Not only is she smart a great person and wonderful mom and Governator and soon to be Vice President she is smokin Hot

[Patricia Harvey]

Sarah gave a very entertaining speech with very little substance to the Republican convention.
She is a good comedian with great oneliners!!! Has America become that shallow?

However, McCain is not young and is this the type leader we want for President????

A person who couldn't even get her daughter to adhere to the conservative christian values that John Mccain has sang about for 30 years. II don't want my daugher to imitate the likes of hers and are we ready for a rose garden shot gun wedding in the White House?
This is a national disgrace.

Perhaps, she would look better in a vision works commercial, walking pit bulls wearing lipstick; with Jerry Springer introducing her to America. America surely can find a better candidate than Sarah.