Oh how the AP must have laughed when their stringer sent in this post-Charleston church killing picture of Ted Cruz with a gun to his head. Well, five images. Instead of consigning them to the electronic dust bin, the news organization sent this one out to their customers, many of which ran it with thanks. Facing blowback from outraged gun owners and Cruz supporters (and gun-owning Cruz supporters), the AP pulled the image. Well sanitized it. [Click here to view.] Needless to say, it lives on. Anyway, here’s the AP’s statement on the photo-ballistic brouhaha . . .

On Saturday The Associated Press distributed a series of photos to our member news organizations and other subscribers showing  Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) at a gun range. The images were not intended to cast the senator in a bad light and they remain available for use by those who received them on Saturday through our photo service. Five of the photos show Mr. Cruz with images of a pistol pointing at his head and upon consideration we have decided to remove those photos from further licensing through AP Images, our commercial photo syndication business.

Which still leaves the question . . .

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43 COMMENTS

  4. All together now everyone on three 1..2..3, unclench. please every one quit creating false outrage for the smallest/dumbest things. Save it for the real awful things the world can throw at you and will again soon. To quote Sgt. Hulka, “lighten up Francis”.

      • I don’t suppose either of you remember the complete apoplectic fit the left threw over some targets on a map do you? They should absolutely be called on their hypocrisy when they turn around and pretend that this is ok.

    • You don’t get it. See Rules for Radicals:

      Rule #4: “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, send 30,000 letters. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules.

      Who cares if it’s a non-issue? If the tables were turned, and it was an image of, I dunno, Sarah Palin’s bullseyes on congressional districts in Texas, for instance, the left would be up in arms about the imagery. In fact, they were up in arms about that very image, among others, after former congresswoman and current sock puppet Gabbie Giffords was shot. They went so far as to say Sarah Palin was outright responsible for putting ideas in the nutjob’s head who shot her. So yeah, I think it’s good to make them live up to their own standards.

      • This.

        “If you know your enemy, and you know yourself, you will never be defeated.” – Sun Tsu

        So who are “the enemy”?

        A bunch of hypocrites. And everyone hates hypocrisy. So every time we rub their face in it, we win.

        Homo sapiens has been around 90,000 years, plus or minus. It is a statistical CERTAINTY that during that time one of your ancestors used force to remain alive. So – congratulations. If you are reading this you are the result of a successful defensive gun (or sword, or spear, or club, or sharp and pointy rock) use.

        • So… wait… if “we” say things like this are a silly distraction (as “we” do) but then we highlight it when it’s a republican, aren’t “we” just as hypocritical?

        • Hannibal, it would be hypocritical if we were upset like they are at the mere offense. Where as it is not hypocritical to be upset at their unfairness and hypocrisy.

    • Exactly. The photographer in me loves it! The composition is pretty awesome & totally shows the context of the photo. It’s not like they doctored it to put the gun there, it’s clearly a poster on the wall behind him.

    • Yeah…..um……it’s just that we’re not doing the “lighten up Francis” thing, anymore. It went bye bye with other lame blog cliches like such and such in “3….2……1…..” and “I’m looking at you….” so and so.

      As for this Cruz pic, it’s not the pic, it’s the double standard underpinning it. Remember the brouhaha over the graphic of crosshairs over Gabby Giffords’ district, which months later after the shooting the libs blamed for creating a violent atmosphere that fomented the shooting itself (despite zero evidence that killer was motivated by it or ever even saw it)? Well. Turnabout is fair play.

      Nobody believes this was just incidental juxtaposition. They saw an opportunity and seized it. Unfortunately for them, their little foolish, ghoulish joke backfired on them. Let them get hoisted on their own petard, I say.

      After all, it is their own incessant nagging, phony outrage, and gotcha histrionics which have created the politically correct atmosphere that fomented this backlash.

    • It is not a small thing. It is time that we stop allowing the statists to determine the rules of debate, define what is right and wrong, and control the culture.

      This is a prime example of how images and memes in the old media are overwhelmingly one-sided.

  5. Like the Hitlery photo better, but I think she would look better with a little tooth brush mustache and a little swastika in the background.

  6. Well this is all over the network news…and yeah they would pitch a b##ch if the hildebeast had a similar(real) screen shot. The left can have movies where they murder W and azzwholes wore F##K Bush shirts (in public) and it’s just “satire” and freedom of speech…try that with the beast or Barry Soetoro and you get a visit form the secret service.

    • You’re in the Chicagoland area, so you might not be aware of this, but there’s plenty of “F##K Obama” merchandise in circulation in large swaths of America. It turns out that he’s not as popular as Salon and HuffPo want everyone to think.

      And of course there will never exist such an image of Clinton, because she probably wouldn’t step foot into a room that had a poster of a gun on the wall.

  7. Extremely poor judgement to run such a picture. This paints a clear picture of the AP and their ethical standards.

  10. Salon, today, if anyone ever reads that trash, shows a picture of Bobby Jindal speaking at an event with a Confederate flag photoshopped behind his head. Even Salon’s crazy readers called them out on that. The site put a disclaimer on the photoshop, but left it up.

    Of course that’s a far left site, while AP is supposed to be neutral. Riiight.

  11. The pre-edit pictures largely represents the sentiment towards Cruz since he was responsible for his disastrous filibuster in the US Senate protesting Obamacare that ended up costing our country over $24B in lost revenues* and other unnecessary costs that shut down the federal government. That plus everything that comes out of his pie hole seems to incrementally lower public opinion of him. I can’t say he made much of an impression announcing his run for POTUS at a bible-thumping “college” that forced their students to attend his dog & pony show – most of them ignoring the proceedings while texting & surfing the web.

    *”Bill Ted Cruz for the $24 billion government shutdown’s cost”
    http://www.telegram.com/article/20131023/COLUMN70/310239992

    “Here’s How Much The Government Shutdown Cost The Economy”
    http://swampland.time.com/2013/10/17/heres-what-the-government-shutdown-cost-the-economy/

    “Ted Cruz Patriotically Costs Country $24 Billion”
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/16/huffpost-hill_n_4111213.html

    Does anyone really want this jamoke to run what’s left of our country?

    • Not commenting on my thoughts about a Ted Cruz presidency, but why are you eating up the left’s propaganda? The Huffington Post has some choice words on the utility of the 2nd Amendment too. You want to post some of those links here as an example of why we need to stop fighting against “reasonable” restrictions on our freedom next?

      Yeah, newsflash, leftist rags don’t like Ted Cruz. Do you really think they’re the best source of objective information about the shutdown [that preceded historic GOP gains in the House and Senate]? Don’t be a tool for the leftists, mmmkaythx.

    • The Repubs took the senate after that government shutdown.

      Cruz is pretty much the only one who’s stuck to his principles, so far, except Rand. We need someone to shake things up. Business-as-usual in the Beltway is killing the country.

      He’s brilliant and has a sterling record on gun rights.

      I always ask people which of his views do you consider extreme, and they can’t name one. The lefty press just calls him that. It’s a smear.

  13. I think it’s a honest mistake, considering how short-sighted AP, CNN, et al are.

    • Maybe.

      It could be an honest mistake, or it could be evidence of the hypocrisy the media.

      Didn’t ‘the left’ have some sort of underwear bunching moment when Sarah Palin used targets on a map for something a while back? And we’re supposed to think this one was just a whoopsie?

      I’m not saying you’re wrong, I saying that I am going with the hypocrisy theory.

  14. It is a fact that the opposition pays trolls to post comments on sites such as TTAG to change the debate, sow discord and doubt, and generally put forward an effective disinformation campaign.

    Some of the comments here make me wonder how many of these paid trolls are operating on this site.

  15. If the gun had been pointed away, then what?

    Anyway, this could be better titled, “How NOT to stage a press conference.”

  16. One of the things I shoot with is a Canon, not a cannon. I would have taken this image as well. Is there a double standard? Of course – a photog would be blacklisted for taking the same image featuring Hillary (although no media organization would have run it). My view is that the moment happened so you capture it.

    I’m sure Mr. Cruz looks at the editorial use of this image as a positive thing – another attack against him and the absolute of the 2A.

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