Yahoo News puts Bin Laden caption beneath Obama photo
RAW STORY
Published:
Thursday January 4, 2007
 Another news service has tangled up terrorist Osama Bin Laden and Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), according to a blog item at the site American Idle on Wednesday. The news came after RAW STORY reported on Tuesday about CNN's apology to the senator for a similar gaffe. An "automatic" slideshow function was blamed for the current foul up.
A photo time-stamped at 12:35 PM on Wednesday on Yahoo News, first revealed by blogger Corey Anderson, showed a pensive Senator Obama with the caption "Osama Bin Laden and al Qaida" beneath it. TPMCafe's Election Central blog further revealed that clicking on the photo showed a larger version with the Bin Laden caption now a banner over the picture, and a caption describing the scene at which the AFP-owned photo was taken -- a December 2006 event where Senator Obama was listening to testimony on radiation poisoning and federal workers.
In the comments section of both blogs, a Brian Nelson, who identified him as working for Yahoo, said that the photo had been removed from the slideshow in question where it was found. He added that "photo slideshows on Yahoo! News are built automatically based on keywords in the wire service-supplied captions of photos....The photo of Sen. Barack Obama appeared in this slideshow because the photo caption included the term "Osama bin Laden" in describing the recent CNN incident. Because it was the most recent photo in the slideshow, it was used to illustrate the bin Laden slideshow on the main photos page." A Google search on Nelson shows that he works for Yahoo's public relations department.
Readers responding to Nelson on both blogs expressed skepticism. Yahoo does not yet appear to have issued a formal statement on the matter.
Corey Anderson's American Idle post can be accessed at this link. TPMCafe's Election Central follow up is available at this link.
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