This comes to us from the good folks at Media Matters (and so do the pics):
During a segment in which Fox & Friends co-hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade labeled New York Times reporter Jacques Steinberg and editor Steven Reddicliffe “attack dogs,” Fox News featured photos of Steinberg and Reddicliffe that appeared to have been digitally altered — the journalists’ teeth had been yellowed, their facial features exaggerated, and portions of Reddicliffe’s hair moved further back on his head.
As someone who is a web and graphic designer – and has worked in graphic design in the television industry – this is piss-poor on many, many levels:
- Skill – 2/10 – This appears as though some production lackey’s mentally-challenged son had a couple classes in Photoshop or got ahold of the Quantel Paintbox and a six pack. “Heh heh…yellow teeth. An I’ll mak’im balder – where’s the airbrush?” And then the farting begins.
- Wit – 1/10 – If you’re going to make caricatures, then make caricatures, cleverly adding in appropriate details. You don’t say “he’s an attack dog” and then show his face MS-paint-pasted on a poodle. The man/poodle shop that appears in the video is a testament to the lack of both skill and wit.
- Tact – 0/10 – What happens when you have no skill or wit? You make these shopped-up photos and present them as the real stock photos of the people. Then you get caught and everyone knows you’re a shady douche.
But this douchebaggery is endemic in conservative and Republican circles: they do not understand humor or wit or what people actually laugh at, so they use underhanded methods to attempt to make fun. Case in point: “The 1/2 Hour News Hour” since canceled from FOX’s lineup. “Heh heh, see what I did there? It’s called the News Hour, but it’s only a half hour – go figure! Ever wonder why you park on a driveway and drive on a parkway?” And it probably took a whole room of conservatives to come up with the title of the show – collectively as witty as a box of hair – let alone the acting and writing that had the production value of high school video morning announcements.
But I guess when you genuinely find poor people or brown people or gay people or smart people funny, you can’t exactly make jokes like that. Because then everyone would know you’re mean.