As of 7:30 a.m. Central, more than 4,700 people had viewed the post, Heroic Name Given to Photo of President Obama, which I published Monday about the White House using the word “hero” as part of the file name given to a photo of President Barack Obama an executive order lifting the ban on federal funding of embryonic stem cells in medical research. Not surprisingly, many who read the post took issue with the root issue which prompted me to write it.
Not being a professional photographer, I recognized the file name, hero_stemcell_main2.jpg, as probable evidence of hero worship on the part of White House staffers toward their boss. Site visitors quickly informed me that I was wrong.
“Calvin Grinder” was the first to write that “hero” was a term used to describe “the best picture of a series, often chosen to represent the whole series.”
Despite having earned a journalism degree almost 25 years ago and worked with professional photographers on a daily basis for more than 10 of the years since, the “hero” term — as a label for a photograph, that is — never entered my vocabulary. So maybe I had been wrong. Then “CLipper” entered the fray and caused me to think I wasn’t.
He wrote, “Normally I would agree with Calvin if the image didn’t also include main2 jpg. The hero is the main in a series, not a bunch of shots.”
Obviously, the vast majority of commenters did not take time to read about me. Instead, they sided with “Calvin Grinder” and took the opportunity to use colorful words to describe me. They said I am a “winger,” a “wingnut” and a “dimwitted clown.”
Perhaps my favorite comment, “jvill” described me as “barely one step above a gaggle of monkeys throwing their poo.”
One person, who goes by the screen name “Wut,” challenged another, “Pat,” to produce proof that adult stem cells and skin cells had shown promise as he had claimed. Though I had to delete his comment because the URL associated with it led to a VERY NSFW site, I answered on “Pat’s” behalf:
Wut — You obviously don’t keep up with the latest news. Pat was spot-on with news about the use of adult stem cells and skin cells. I recommend you run a Google search and check for yourself. Oh, what the heck, I’ll save Pat the trouble: Discover Magazine Blog, March 5, 2009 or Popular Science, March 4, 2009.
After suffering so many “slings and arrows,” I was glad to be able to get some solid facts out about the opportunities available with adult stem cells and skin cells. I think my work here is complete.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Pinky // Mar 11, 2009 at 12:26 pm
So, explain these filenames I found from White House photos of the president distributed in 2006 that begin with “bush”, “main_bush”, “large_bush”, “medium_bush”, and “small_bush”!
2 hotoffthepress2 // Mar 11, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Pinky,
I’ll should leave it up to the “Bob-Bashers” who left comments on the other post to answer that question. But I won’t. Instead, I’ll offer this: Perhaps, those on the left consider the shutterbugs who worked for “W” to be professionals.
3 maleman // Mar 11, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Dude, just admit you were wrong. It is this kind of denial in the face of obvious facts that makes the GOP seem like a bunch of buffoons. Which sounds more likely: The filename was selected as a reverential nod towards Obama…or they were just using the ubiquitous term for the best shot in a series… hmmm…
Then you see there are many other “hero” shots that have nothing to do with Obama, but all of which were used as images on the White House front page.
Face it. You are a frickin idiot. You ran with a story in a childish style before doing some simple research. YOU ARE A HACK.
4 hotoffthepress2 // Mar 11, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Maleman,
Your opinion means nothing to me: Zero! Zip! Nada!
5 Clay Bowler // Mar 11, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Maleman, Are you kidding me? Your response is ignorant, and once again Mr. McCarty prepared a solid essay. You Obama supporters really have me puzzled. You have total control of the country, and yet waste so much time on such trivial things. Obama is no hero. He has done nothing in his life that merits the label. The real problem is there have been too many reverential nods towards Obama, and now he is confused and hyped as a savior and cult-leader, which he is not. He hasn’t even shown the ability to lead . He had a chance to today to live up to his words and show leadership, and he botched it today. Had he vetoed the spending bill, I would have celebrated Obama for the first time. This time last year, he co-sponsored a bill prohibiting earmarks. This year he signs one of the largest earmark, pork filled bills of all time. This isn’t the work of a hero. It’s not the work of a leader. It’s the work of someone who is confused as to who they are.
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