Did Clinton Darken Obama’s Skin?
Some Obama backers cry “racism.”
Obama supporters on the Internet are agitated over the apparent darkening of Obama’s image in a Clinton attack ad.
Our conclusions:
• The Obama frames from the ad do appear darker than other video of Obama from the same event.
• However, the YouTube copy of the ad, on which the bloggers base their conclusions, is darker overall than other copies of the ad. We obtained a digital recording of the ad as it actually appeared on a Texas TV station, and it is lighter.
• Furthermore, our analysis of the Obama frames, using Photoshop, shows a fairly uniform darkening of the entire image including the backdrop. It is not just Obama’s skin color that’s affected.
• Also, nearly all the images in the ad are dark, including those of Hillary Clinton. And dark images are a common technique used in attack ads.
Others will speculate about the Clinton campaign’s intentions and motives..
No, she didn’t darken his skin, his Kenyan father is responsible for that. Hillary is responsible for the following though:
1. Her campaign workers sending out e-mails in Iowa and S.C. accusing Obama of being a Muslim
2. Her co-chair alluding to Obama’s possible drug-dealing past
3. Her sponsoring robo-calls that used his full name (Hussein) as a blatant attempt to malign him
johnnypeepers
March 6, 2008 at 12:02 am
Although I voted for Obama, I cannot tolerate the lies currently being directed against the Clinton campaign. The accusation that a Hillary commercial intentionally darkened Obama’s face is a lie.
Kos is resorting to the worst kind of smear tactics. Had he done even a few minutes of research, he would have understood the processes involved.
I am a graphic designer with a quarter-century experience in advertising and image manipulation. I expose the entire matter — citing competent authority — in this piece:
http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2008/03/kos-is-klown-or-why-did-obama-girl.html
My post points out that Obama’s image is darkened even more severely in the famed “Obama Girl” video, as compared to the original footage (from his 2004 DNC speech).
Neither Hillary nor Obama Girl meant to offer a racist insult. The darkening is a result of the codecs used. The widening is a common and expected artifact of variance in pixel aspect ratios (PAR), as explained in my piece.
Race is an explosive topic; Kos should have done his research before he decided to play with fire. He has never before behaved so disgracefully.
Joseph Cannon
March 6, 2008 at 7:38 am