Museum-Quality Derp
Memphis’ own FOX 13 News has earned a place of dubious honor in a new exhibit curated by New York’s Bronx Documentary Center. “Altered Images: 150 Years of Posed and Manipulated Documentary Photography,” a century-and-a-half’s worth of fakery in photojournalism, also looks into misrepresentation by news agencies. The exhibit includes a FOX 13 social media post about civil unrest in Maryland. Channel 13’s post was headlined “Baltimore in Flames,” but the accompanying photo wasn’t from Baltimore. The terrible image of a McDonald’s sign backlit by an enormous blaze was taken in Valencia, Venezuela, a year earlier.
Embezzlefitting
According to Arkansas’ KAIT-TV News, the Batesville Police Department has broken up a counterfeit ring that had been passing poorly printed funny money at area shops and yard sales. Investigator Jeff Sims described the criminal endeavor as “redneck embezzlement.” It’s possible that the officer was making a joke about country people not being smart enough to know the difference between printing your own money and embezzlement. It’s also possible that he wasn’t making any joke at all.
Report & Flow
Speaking of KAIT-TV, the Arkansas news station also wins this week’s coveted Headline Poetry Award for this rhyming entry: “Marijuana by Mail Lands Man in Jail.” In addition to having a beat you can dance to, this elegantly penned story-topper looked fantastic alongside KAIT’s report about Anthony L. Haynes, a Jonesboro man who got in trouble with the law after mailing two pounds of pot to his apartment.
