Tag Archives: galen

I was at work yesterday reading the Los Angeles Times. I came across their day late, dollar short article about Dennis Hopper getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of fame.

They displayed two pictures with this article entitled Ailing Dennis Hopper gets a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. One of the first things I noticed was that the photo’s that the times used were retouched. On the front page was the picture on the right.

As you can see, it shows an ailing Dennis Hopper, aged considerably and looking frail and weak. Next to Hopper is Jack Nicholson. Nicholson appears younger and more healthy. That’s because Nicholson was retouched to make him look younger and accentuate Hopper’s failing health.

Now look at this picture of Hopper with his daughter Galen. Its not hard to see that this picture is so photoshopped that hopper looks like he’s in the early thirties. Its absolutely ridiculous. I could see it plainly in the black and white photo’s that the Los Angeles Times used for the article. I was wondering if I was the only one to notice this, so I asked some of my co-workers if they could see any difference between the two photos.

My point in all of this is that this is a blatant manipulation of the news. Hopper is frail and weak. There is no disputing that. Why then would the Times choose to retouch these photos?

Howard Stern used to say that these photographers click off a hundred photos of celebrities, and if they like them they choose a flattering photo of that person, but if they are hated by the media like Stern is, they choose the worst picture of the batch.

For those that don’t believe me, look at the media photos used covering GW Bush and the ones used for Obama. With Obama, they use photos that portray Obama as a powerful leader. They used photos of Bush that made him look retarded and foolish.

I know this is just a small manipulation of the news, but its manipulation nonetheless. I like to point this out from time to time for the simpletons that think the media is a good source for the truth. JD