News Hit

One of the strangest non-news stories last week was the ‘Bottomgate’ affair. The story started with a single photograph that a Reuters cameraman had taken of Barack Obama, and Nicholas Sarkozy at the G20 Summit in Italy:

In the photo it appears that Obama and Sarkozy are salaciously examining a lady delegate’s derriere. Obama is standing at an odd angle, and it looks as though he is following girl’s path with his eyes. His neck and body are slightly angled, as if he is twisting around to watch her pass him by, and he has what looks like a leery half-smile on his face. Sarkozy, on the other hand, has his arms folded, but he is clearly looking in her direction.

But what imbues the image with a slightly creepy resonance is the fact that the girl in the photo is seventeen years old, and a special guest at the summit. She was there for the J8 summit, a junior version of the G8 summit.

The photo was quickly picked up and started making the rounds on American blogs – unsurprisingly, those that have an ambivalent opinion of Obama and the Democratic Party. The Drudge Report picked it up. The New Republic picked it up. The photo was discussed and dissected on the cable TV gabfests.

In the process, the summit was overshadowed.

In Australia, the story took a similar trajectory. Andrew Bolt posted up the picture on his blog under the caption 'Obama and French President Sarkozy discuss another stimulus package at the G8'. And then the mainstream media in Australia picked it up. The photo was featured prominently on the news.com.au homepage, and was reproduced in The Weekend Australian in an article about the summit.

it was one of those stories that was picked up by the traditional media on the basis that it had infected the Internet. Initially it was only a throwaway story, but it seems to have overshadowed the entire
G8 meeting.

However, video footage of the event reveals that the snapshot is misleading. It was taken as Obama was turning around to face someone standing behind him. As a result of a transitory frame in the animation, as it were, it appears that he is ogling the Brazilian guest.

The Sunday Age ran a story setting the record straight. The New York Times also ran a corrective on its site, and included links to other articles debunking the unflattering photo.

Far from being a lecherous creep, Obama was actually being a perfect gentleman. He was turning around to face the girl behind him, the American J8 delegate, to help her down the stairs.

Nicholas Sarkozy on the other hand… well, he’s Sarkozy.

Sadly, these sort of images seem to be becoming more widespread, as they are an easy way to query a public figure's reputation without actually having to pay attention to what they represent. Never mind that the picture is an unflattering one, taken at an unfortunate moment, if you are critical of Obama it provides a searing insight into his true nature.

It's a very tabloid tactic - dredge up a photo of someone taken in an unflattering light and use it as the foundation of a tacky, sensationalist non-story. The Internet seems rather adept at using these tactics, and on many partisan sites, unflattering photos are routinely dredged up to smear those public figures that the . The Internet has also abetted a shift towards unflattering photos in the mainstream media - the Bottomgate picture was all but ignored until it was picked up and transmitted across the blogosophere by mischievous bloggers.

in the end, all this does is facilitate cheap shots at Obama and Sarkozy, give hyperventilating media 'analysts' a chance to vent their prejudices and leave the general public in ignorance over what actually happened at the summit. It was reported that the G8 nations had pledged over $25 billion (AUD) towards helping poor farmers in developing nations improve their nations' agriculture, but this was overshadowed by Bottomgate.

But these tactics aren’t just restricted to those whose views of Obama are as unflattering as the Bottomgate photo. In 2007, The New York Times, although it was quick to take the moral high ground in this case, published an article with this photo accompanying it:

In this photo it would appear the Arnold Schwarzenegger is glaring at George W. Bush. Speculation was rife as to the photo's true meaning – was this a sign of Arnold’s Democratic sympathies? Does he hate George W Bush? Is he jealous that the constitution barred him, as someone born offshore, from occupying the starring role of President?

In the end, Schwarzenegger defused the speculation, saying that the sun was in his eyes at the time and that it was forcing him to squint. It is doubtful that what he said would change many minds of those who know what is really going on in that scene. Just like those who know that Obama was ogling the Brazilian J8 delegate as she walked past.

It is a pity that the Internet so often allows people to form these little conspiratorial communities, rather than to discuss the issues that matter. All of the bluster last weekend that went into discussing and dissecting the Bottomgate picture would have been better spent analysing how the G8 countries' measures will counteract the effects of the global financial crisis. Instead, what American viewers got, was a media 'analyst' hopping on his cross-platform soapbox and grandly declaring that:

You know, this is like the antiquated racist stereotype of an oversexed black man being a predator...

If only he had taken a principled stance against the rampant Francophobia of those attacking Sarkozy for much the same thing and exhuming all those damaging old stereotypes of the French...

Finally, that this non-issue - Bottomgate - has been inflated to assume the status of a insert-title-here-gate, only goes to show how widespread these gates have become. It’s even more urgent than I first thought – someone really needs to fix the flood of gates.