ARTISTLIARTHIEF: Obama Artist Shepard Fairey Admits to Wrongdoing in Associated Press Lawsuit

L.A. Times just dropped this blockbuster:

In a strange twist to an already complicated legal situation, artist Shepard Fairey admitted today to legal wrongdoing in his ongoing battle with the Associated Press.

Fairey said in a statement issued late Friday that he knowingly submitted false images and deleted others in the legal proceedings, in an attempt to conceal the fact that the AP had correctly identified the photo that Fairey had used as a reference for his “Hope” poster of then-Sen. Barack Obama.

“Throughout the case, there has been a question as to which Mannie Garcia photo I used as a reference to design the HOPE image,” Fairey said. “The AP claimed it was one photo, and I claimed it was another.”

New filings to the court, he said, “state for the record that the AP is correct about which photo I used…and that I was mistaken. While I initially believed that the photo I referenced was a different one, I discovered early on in the case that I was wrong. In an attempt to conceal my mistake I submitted false images and deleted other images.” (more…)

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Tags: associated press, Barack Obama, Mannie Garcia, Obama Hope Poster, Shepard Fairey
Posted Oct 16th 2009 at 8:42 pm in Art, Culture, Featured Story, Media Criticism | 24860699 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bighollywood/2009/10/16/artistliarthief-obama-artist-shepard-fairey-admits-to-wrongdoing-in-associated-press-lawsuit/ARTISTLIARTHIEF%3A+Obama+Artist+Shepard+Fairey+Admits+to+Wrongdoing+in+Associated+Press+Lawsuit2009-10-17+03%3A42%3A55Big+Hollywood

Two Fish, One Barrel: Deconstructing Andrew Sullivan’s ‘The Breitbart Standard,’ Demolishing Conor Friedersdorf’s ‘The Right’s Lesser Media’

To which I respond to my unofficial biographer Conor Friedersdorf’s Daily Beast criticism of your’s truly and bigger fish Andrew Sullivan’s two-thumbs-up to it:                             

Andrew Sullivan (left) and Conor Friedersdorf

In the piece you link to and affirm in the Daily Beast, “The Right’s Lesser Press,” Conor Friedersdorf refuses to interview me as he continues to be my unofficial biographer. (I’m VERY reachable, Conor.) He writes opinion pieces on me purporting to be journalism. He doesn’t quote or cite me, he simply assumes and pushes the point of view he thinks I have and makes an argument based on these alleged positions. It’s sloppy and you, of all people, should know better.

Breitbart.com is MOSTLY a news aggregator. It carries the Associated Press, Reuters, even, Agence France Presse, from those dreaded croissant eaters!!!

It even carries the New York Times on its front page — a benefit that even Big Government and Big Hollywood don’t receive.

Big Hollywood is what it is: a counter-voice to the virtually monolithic Hollywood left. How dare I grant a platform, and a means for the defense of those in Hollywood who would dare go against the strident and intolerant Hollywood left.

Big Government, too, is providing an outlet for voices and ideas that are not proportionally represented in the traditional and mostly biased mainstream media.

(more…)

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Tags: ACORN, acorn scandal, Agence France Presse, Andrew Breitbart, Andrew Sullivan
Posted Oct 6th 2009 at 1:35 pm in Featured Story, Media Criticism, Politics | 24146254 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/abreitbart/2009/10/06/two-fish-one-barrel-deconstructing-andrew-sullivans-the-breitbart-standard-demolishing-conor-friedersdorfs-the-rights-lesser-media/Two+Fish%2C+One+Barrel%3A+Deconstructing+Andrew+Sullivan%E2%80%99s+%E2%80%98The+Breitbart+Standard%2C%E2%80%99+Demolishing+Conor+Friedersdorf%E2%80%99s+%E2%80%98The+Right%E2%80%99s+Lesser+Media%E2%80%992009-10-06+20%3A35%3A53Andrew+Breitbart

Racial Schizophrenia

Speaking to NBC News Anchor Brian Williams, former president Jimmy Carter (who was taking a breather between having tea with dictators and lunatics) proffered that not only was South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson’s inappropriate outburst during President Obama’s speech before a joint session of congress fueled by racism, but the wider opposition to Obama is also based on the fact that Obama is black. Said Carter: “I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African-American.”

During Obama’s 400th speech defending his plans to reform healthcare the president responded to charges that the proposals before congress would provide healthcare for illegal immigrants. The President called the charges false whereupon Wilson forgot his home training (or lost his mind) and called the President a liar.

As it happens, similar words were falling from my own lips at that very same moment. I think most people recognize that a private citizen calling the President a liar in the privacy of their living rooms is rather a different animal from elected officials doing so during a Presidential address. I would also like to believe that most thinking people recognize that boorish is not the same thing as racist. (more…)

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Tags: associated press, healthcare, Jimmy Carter, Joe Wilson, Obama
Posted Sep 21st 2009 at 8:33 pm in News, Politics | 23227043 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jphillips/2009/09/21/racial-schizophrenia/Racial+Schizophrenia2009-09-22+03%3A33%3A45Joseph+C.+Phillips

‘NewsBusted’ 9/15/09 — Comedy News from the Right

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Tags: 9/11 Terrorist Attacks, associated press, bush, California Wildfires, Charlie Sheen
Posted Sep 15th 2009 at 6:51 pm in Media Criticism, Political Humor, Video | 22547812 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/newsbusters/2009/09/15/newsbusted-91509-comedy-news-from-the-right/%27NewsBusted%E2%80%99+9%2F15%2F09+%E2%80%94+Comedy+News+from+the+Right2009-09-16+01%3A51%3A04NewsBusters

Who Called in the DC Tea Party Bomb Threat?

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Tags: associated press, Bil Ayers, DC Tea Party, Obama, Photoshop
Posted Sep 13th 2009 at 3:35 pm in Art, News, Political Humor, Politics | 22423050 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cmuir/2009/09/13/who-called-in-the-dc-tea-party-bomb-threat/Who+Called+in+the+DC+Tea+Party+Bomb+Threat%3F2009-09-13+22%3A35%3A12Chris+Muir

Defending ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’

Twenty-two years is a tremendously long run for any television show. This is especially true for a thirty-minute drama that airs five days a week throughout the entire year save for a few holidays and special occasions. This past Sunday for the first time that drama, “The Bold and the Beautiful,” was named “Best Drama Series” at the low-rated Daytime Emmy Awards. Unfortunately, the people who received that hard-earned award were not allowed the chance to bask in their long-awaited victory.

As the Associated Press reported, “The live telecast on the CW went off the air just as the cast and crew was assembling on the stage to accept its trophy.” In addition to the longevity of the show, the article noted the familial nature of the show’s production. The article noted, “It was a poignant victory for executive producer Bradley Bell, whose late father William J. Bell co-created ‘The Young and the Restless,” a show that was honored seven times in the same category.” (more…)

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Tags: associated press, Best Drama Series, Daytime Emmy Awards, The Bold and the Beautiful, The Young and the Restless
Posted Sep 5th 2009 at 5:31 pm in Entertainment, News | 21717813 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jhanlon/2009/09/05/defending-the-bold-and-the-beautiful/Defending+%27The+Bold+and+the+Beautiful%27+2009-09-06+00%3A31%3A21John+P.+Hanlon

‘NewsBusted’ 5/08/09 — Fake News from the Right

In this episode, “NewsBusted” covers: The War on Terrorism, President Obama, the Associated Press, Osama Bin Laden, Attorney General Eric Holder, Al Qaeda, FDA, Botox, Nancy Pelosi, Keith Olbermann, Simon Cowell, Ryan Seacrest, and Clay Aiken.

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Tags: al qaeda, associated press, Attorney General Eric Holder, Botox, Clay Aiken
Posted May 8th 2009 at 7:13 pm in Celebrity News, Media Criticism, Political Humor | 129958One Commenthttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/newsbusters/2009/05/08/%e2%80%9cnewsbusted%e2%80%9d-50809-%e2%80%94-fake-news-from-the-right/%27NewsBusted%27+5%2F08%2F09+%E2%80%94+Fake+News+from+the+Right+2009-05-09+02%3A13%3A59NewsBusters

The Lamp of Vigilance

Credit Liz Sidoti with one of the more anemic arguments to date, that this nation still has a long way to go to bridge the centuries old racial divide–even in this post Obama age. Writing for the Associated Press, Sidoti argues that in spite of the election of Barack Obama to the nation’s highest office, “old racial stereo-types and internet-fueled falsehoods flourish.” As evidence Sidoti offers the editorial cartoon which appeared in the New York Post showing two Police Officers standing over a dead Chimpanzee, an email forwarded by Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose of watermelons on the white house lawn and the internet chat surrounding Obama’s citizenship.

A little historical perspective is perhaps in order. This nation was born in a world of chattel slavery. On the heels of a bloody civil war that ended the institution of slavery came lynchings, Jim Crow Laws, separate but equal education and literacy tests at the polls. The fact that the best Sidoti could come up with to bolster her argument were a few off-color emails speaks volumes.

Ignorance, petty politics and downright human ugliness will always be with us. What is more telling is how a society responds to it. There was a time when jokes such as that passed along by Grose would be told in public and greeted with huge guffaws. Thankfully those times are long gone. Today such jokes are relegated to the anonymous and not-as-private-as-the -mayor-thought world of the internet. If and when such attitudes come to light they are met with outrage, ridicule and the indulger is bathed in public humiliation and suffers political ruin. Grose was not celebrated; he resigned in disgrace. (more…)

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Tags: associated press, Jim Crow Laws, Liz Sidoti, lynchings, Mayor Dean Grose
Posted Apr 13th 2009 at 10:26 am in News, Politics | 107826No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jphillips/2009/04/13/the-lamp-of-vigilance/The+Lamp+of+Vigilance2009-04-13+17%3A26%3A58Joseph+C.+Phillips

The Con Artists Have Taken Over the Asylum

This week’s Washington Times column:

Can we all agree that the “hope, “change” and “transparency” part of the Barack Obama media carnival is officially over, and it’s finally time that we start holding our new president accountable?

Consider the tale of the ubiquitous “Hope” poster that helped get Mr. Obama worshiped, inoculated and elected — and the anti-capitalist street artist who “created” it.

Shepard Fairey last week was sued for copyright infringement by the Associated Press, which claims he stole photographer Manny Garcia’s work and made it the basis of the iconic off-red, white and blue posters whose signed editions are being sold on eBay for thousands of dollars.

If found guilty — a liberal application of “fair use” law could protect Mr. Fairey — we have a case of the white man stealing from an ethnic minority in order to turn a quick profit. (I thought an Obama presidency would automatically end such practices.)

(more…)

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Tags: associated press, Barack Obama, Communist artists, eBay, Hope poster
Posted Feb 8th 2009 at 5:49 pm in Featured Story, Media Criticism, News, Politics | 45678141 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/abreitbart/2009/02/08/the-con-artists-have-taken-over-the-asylum/The+Con+Artists+Have+Taken+Over+the+Asylum2009-02-09+01%3A49%3A39Andrew+Breitbart

“Hope” – The Legal Battle!

An interesting kerfuffle recently erupted when the Associated Press accused Shepard Fairey, the artist who designed the famous Barack Obama Hope graphic, of copyright infringement and threatened to sue him.

Glen E. Friedman — the super-talented chronicler of my cultural youth – comes up with, sorry to say, an argument in defense of friend Fairey that makes little sense. According to Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing, Friedman’s point can be boiled down like this: The Obama picture sucked originally and was improved. And because Fairey donated every penny he made from the graphic to the Obama campaign, he saw no profit on the graphic and should not be liable. (more…)

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Tags: associated press, copyright suit, obama copyright, obama iconography
Posted Feb 6th 2009 at 12:20 pm in Media Criticism | 4308635 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dharsanyi/2009/02/06/hope-the-legal-battle/%22Hope%22+-+The+Legal+Battle%212009-02-06+20%3A20%3A18David+Harsanyi