The photo depicts Sen. Mary Landrieu with a wad of semen in her hair. A Photoshop whiz clearly took the accidental spunk-hawk Cameron Diaz sported in the 1998 rom-com "There's Something About Mary" and seamlessly added it to a photograph of the Louisiana senator. (Get it? They're both named Mary! Plus: Splooge on a woman's head? Comedy gold.) I would shrug off this photo-editing disaster as yet more evidence that the Internet is forever stuck in a pubertal phase, but -- dude -- the picture was published on Time.com. As in, Time magazine.
Time. Mag. Azine.
On November 19, the image was posted to The Page blog, which is written by Mark Halperin, and ran with the caption: "Senator Landrieu's latest position on proceeding on health care debate here." The link brings you to another page -- although still on The Page -- with a throw-away quote from Landrieu's spokesperson about having "no time-line on when she will make and announce her decision on the motion to proceed. " First off: Needlessly linking to another page on your own blog with a one-sentence quote that you easily could have included in the initial post is a surefire way to piss off readers (and ensure they will never again click on your links). Second: Astute readers will note that the quote and the photograph are entirely unrelated.
At some point, the URL for the post at issue began registering a "page not found" message. So did a post that Halperin published the following day featuring side-by-side photos of Landrieu and Diaz, minus the bodily fluids. (Way to class things up.) A cached version of the missing pages -- both of which include "theres-something-about-mary" in the URL -- can be found here and here. Also, on Saturday, The Page announced that the senator would "vote in favor of bringing health bill to the floor for debate" along with the headline, "Landrieu Says Yes," and that post is no longer showing up. I called and e-mailed Time late Tuesday to ask the when, why and how of the missing posts but a press representative declined to comment.
As Media Matters points out, this only adds to "a broader, sexist right-wing narrative that the U.S. Senator from Louisiana is, as Glenn Beck put it yesterday, 'a high-class prostitute' engaged in 'hookin'' -- all because she lobbied Senate leadership for expanded Medicaid funding for Louisiana in the Senate health care bill in what was characterized by the media as an exchange for her 'yea' vote to proceed with floor debate on the bill." Naturally, Rush Limbaugh also joined in, calling her "the most expensive prostitute in the history of prostitution."
So, fellas, you've already illustrated her with ejaculate in her hair and called her a prostitute -- what's next? I shudder to think.
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