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To paraphrase another blog’s tagline, reading Firedoglake is like getting Time magazine two months early… literally.
I had a deja vu experience yesterday when I came face to face with this week’s cover of Time magazine, which superimposes Barack Obama’s face on a famous photo of Franklin D. Roosevelt. You see, I had done a crude Photoshop of the exact same concept — using the same FDR image — back in September to illustrate a post by Ian Welsh.
I don’t mind that Time used its professional staff and greater lead time to improve on my version, scaling up the size of Obama’s head and tilting it back to compensate for the difference between FDR’s bull neck and Barack’s scrawnier one (my take made Obama look like a teenager wearing his dad’s suit).
But I am kind of curious whether the idea was purely coincidental…
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Swopa,
They will want you at Time really soon! ;)
Was there ever any question why one would read teh blogs?
The check is in the mail, Swopa! /s
Stole it!! Stole it!! Sue their fucking ass!!!
Time doesn’t read those nasty, mean, far left blogs. They just steal from them.
Take that back. they clearly diodn’t copy you, swope. Your BHO doesn’t have glasses.
Perhaps their online editor Ana[l] Marie Cox should be consulted.
I don’t think she’s lost her job there, yet.
I see this as a good thing – first they steal the graphics, next is your crystal-clear, logical ideas?
NO FAIR!
they can steal the art but they can NOT steal the swopa, I will NOT allow it!
Just be sure they don’t take that coool leather jacket that EW coveted!
If she wants to keep her job, she’ll lie, eh? So obvious, the Time Bandits copped the goods.
Swopa rocks.
Filthy rich!
We can only hope that Time will next steal Joe Lieberman, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.
oooo, creative license!
Personally, I feel the FDL is at least six months ahead of most media outlets in terms of important issues.
“Did Time Magazine “Borrow” Its Obama/FDR Cover Idea From Firedoglake?”
Yes.
“But I am kind of curious whether the idea was purely coincidental…”
No.
maybe they hire “independent contractors” (blog users) to read the blogs for them, looking for stuff to exploit
I think they stole it. They can do the right thing, bow to genius and pay up, or they can rot in hell. But I don’t believe in hell so I’d want a lotta money right quick. Plus I want an article on the FDL staff of writers and illustrators.
and make Jane Hamsher Person of the Year.
Are you insinuating that Mr. Luce’s fine, right-wing magazine would steal an idea from a DFH blog?
I am shocked, shocked I tell you.
I want: Hat Tip firedoglake.com on the cover. *g*
Obama should don the FDR gear and drive himself in the inaugural parade
by the way, FDR contains two thirds of FDL
the converse is also true
At least……..and that’s only when they’re lucky and don’t miss it totally.
Swopa !
cbl memehunter is on the case – I’m technically illiterate, but how difficult would be it be to check who’s been peeking in – prolly a couple million “peeks’ since your fabulous graphic appeared here – but you’ve all taught me no one goes online anywhere without leaving fingerprints – I’d check back 11/4 onward
better yet,
hey NSA tenders ! what ya got ???
It is clear that FDL’s (and Swopa’s) “Time” has come…
Ouch.
I call it: Tomorrow’s News Last Week!
Keep it up swopa & pups.
Thank you for ‘covering’ this, Swopa.
I have long maintained that FDL can run circles around the MSM, in terms of providing information AND analysis. Apparently, FDL is well ahead in the ‘image’ department as well.
I have an idea for a Time cover (or an FDL graphic):
A picture of Richard Nixon, standing in the doorway of the Marine One helicopter on the White House lawn, lifting his arms and fingers in his famous “V” pose, as he is about to be whisked away on the occasion of his resignation as president in 1974
except that
the figure standing in the helicopter doorway would have the face of….
Joe Lieberman
i thought the cigarette thing was really obama’s. it’s really elitist lookin’
That’s fine, as long as there’s money delivered to FDL first.
Is there a lawyer in the house?
The same idea was also used in an illustration for this New Yorker article.
Congratulations on beating everyone to it!
Shuster Cites Hamsher on The Lieberman Cave In
Pach up
neurophius at 23 “FDR contains two thirds of FDL”
Maybe that’s the firedogriver flowin into the lake.
Google for Time’s cover. People really like that image, Swopa!
Hulu’s got a Morning Joe conversation about this issue of Time that starts and ends with everyone lovin that image.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/4408…..w-new-deal
Of course they stole the idea from FDL. Time magazine hasn’t had an original thought since 1957. A dinosaur that will suffer the same fate, thankfully.
When the media steal from us, it’s flattery. When we steal from them, it’s copyright infringement.
Those of you who have a blog about politics with photo headers on your essays, raise your hands if the local media has NEVER ripped off your blog’s photos, or one of your local colleagues? Thought so. No hands.
In Anchorage, the Anchorage Daily News routinely rips off local blogger Dennis Zaki for his excellent political photos. The most famous photoshopped Sarah Palin picture of all, the fake Vogue cover, was created by Kodiak blogger, Ishmael Melville. The ADN then ran it as a screenshot from my site, without even crediting Ishmael OR Progressive Alaska.
Lotsa other examples. Bt if I run a photo from the ADN, I start getting emails and phone calls from their attorney’s office in fifteen seconds. Even though I credit them. They want $$$
I think it’s coincidence: Obama’s coming in after a huge stock market meltdown, just like FDR, with similar hopes piled on his shoulders. Of course people will be comparing him to FDR.
Truth be told, I think so, too. Start with wanting to show an Obama-FDR parallel, Google up one of the most famous FDR images, plug in a picture of Obama smiling. Not exactly rocket science.
But it’s amusing to think about the possibilities. :-)
New Yorker had the same last week.
you’re everywhere.
too bad no copyright
“Obama should don the FDR gear and drive himself in the inaugural parade”
And FDR wore a High Silk Top Hat to his inagural, meaning that all the other men had to conform.
And by the way, Eleanor wore her furs (which sadly were eliminated for PC reasons at the memorial). If I remember rightly she wore 11 mink. And if you don’t know what an 11 mink stole looked like — with each little mink having its own glassed over eyes and it’s own teeth, well then you don’t really get how the status thing really worked back in the 30’s. It was the measure of a woman.
I should have added, the old bashed in business hat in the initial FDR picture is his Lucky Campaign Hat — not something he ever formally wore. He also sometimes wore the Campaign Hat while Fishing. Luck you see. If you want to see the silk top hat, look at the picture of FDR and Hoover during that silent ride to the Capitol. My guess is that the original picture is from the 1936 campaign.
Perhaps someone who can photo-shop, which I have not mastered, should do the FDR Hoover with their top hats, and put Obama and Bush heads on the famous picture.
The version in The New Yorker is a drawing by Richard Thompson… from a slightly different angle, but clearly based on the same photo.
http://www.newyorker.com/onlin…..showHeader
Replying to myself…
In fact, check the whole slideshow of artists’ versions of Barack — they’re all good.
Of course it wasn’t coincidence. And they got big bucks for making a few minor changes. And you got zilch.
Not fair! But that is how America is now. Most of the talented people get little or no money. The hacks spend 3/4 of their time eating garbage at Sally Quinn’s house, and then spend 1/4 of their time copying.
Didn’t your 3rd grade teacher tell you copying was bad? Sad to say that hasn’t been true lately …..
Just goes to show you that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Stealing is their idea of being creative, a necessity I suppose especially since they have so little culture to draw upon from within their own ranks.