Classy: AP Publishes Photo of a Gun Pointed At Ted Cruz's Head

Aaron Bandler | June 22, 2015 8:00 PM

I get the feeling that the Associated Press doesn't like Ted Cruz very much.

Imagine that this same AP photographer, instead of shifting a foot to the left or the right, framed a picture with the Senator’s nose almost touching the barrel, as a closer crop makes clear.

Imagine that this photographer, even though he took a few shots with this silly setup, took many more without it. Imagine that his editor–unnamed and insulated from public backlash–chose not one but two but three of those photos to distribute to AP’s clients.

So it clearly was not an accident. The AP, it seems, wanted to create a photo of a gun pointed at the head Senator Cruz. Oh, you're so clever AP.

Here is the AP's statement:

“Presidential candidate Ted Cruz,” Paul Colford, vice president & director of media relations, said, “was shown in a series of 14 photos taken by an Associated Press photographer at a ‘Celebrate the 2nd Amendment’ event Saturday afternoon, held at a shooting range in Johnston, Iowa. Five of the photos published by AP included images of guns seen on a wall in the background so that it appeared a pistol was pointed at Sen. Cruz’s head.

“The images were not intended to portray Sen. Cruz in a negative light,” Colford said.

Of course, had a conservative website posted a photo of a picture of a gun pointed at Hillary Clinton's head, there would be cries of sexism and Media Matters would threaten to boycott.