Washington Times Runs Obama Girls' Photo With Story About Murdered Chicago Kids

On Wednesday, a story featured on the Washington Times website about murdered Chicago schoolchildren was inexplicably paired with a photo of President Obama's daughters. The two girls are not mentioned in the story, and aside from having at one point been schoolchildren in Chicago have no connection to it.

As Media Matters' Eric Boehlert points out:

The Obama children, of course, are not actually mentioned in the news story. But somebody at the WashTimes thought it made perfect sense to insert the image of the underage White House occupants into a story about murdered kids in Chicago.

And no, this was not an example of an unfortunate juxtaposition, where the the Obama girls photo was actually part of another, more innocuous story and because of a layout quirk simply appeared near the murdered-kids story. Instead, the Obama girls photo was specifically selected to accompany the article.

The photo was later taken down.

Editor John Solomon told Greg Sargent technology, not a person, was to blame.

"The theme engine, through automation, grabbed a photo it thought was relevant, and attached it to the story," Solomon said, acknowledging that the photo had gone up without a person seeing it. "There was no editorial decision to run it. As soon as it was brought to our attention, we pulled it down."

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Comments

[WVP]

"The theme engine, through automation, grabbed a photo it thought was relevant, and attached it to the story," Solomon said.

I'd like to see how the photo was tagged to make it "relevant". What a crock.

[Beamreach]

These are sick people who are trying to incite violence against our president. There is no other explanation.

[Maerzie]

Doesn't anybody bother to proofread the edition before it is sent out? This is pure carelessness and a perverted mind. Someone MUST proofread and just let it go out that way!

[BroMan]

Thank you. This is supposed to be a NEWSPAPER for G o ds sakes.

[jazzycafe]

C'mon, human beings do not choose the photo that goes with a story ???

What the editor John Solomon meant to say was, "Oops - our bad. He-he."

[triplbee]

This is an outrage. I know the Washington Times hates Obama, but this is beyond the pale. We should write the Washington Times' advertisers and request that they pull their ads.

[TaylorRae]

Sure, blame it on the machines. Is yours named Hal?

[Pierpier]

Automated journalism. No one to blame. Next: automated politics.

[LABC]

Oh, so the Moonie Times did a boo boo? What's new?

[Chapmanp2]

Was it meant as a threat of some sort??? This is so ridiculously unacceptable & I'll tell you straight up if I had Obama's position I'd take these classless pukes & flush em' down the toilet as forcefully as the law would allow.

[Cynthia Acheampong]

Really? Icomeinpeace, where is the "freedom of the press" where?, these are children maybe you are not a parent but if u were would you like a major publication printing pictures of your children headlining a story about murdered children? Nationally? Before you answer that question think really hard, because if your answer is yes, then it explaines a lot as to why for the past 8years the United States was hated world over.

I guess you don't care about what foreigners have to say either, just like all neocons, by the way a little bit of education you might want to read a book call (America Alone), before you post your next comment.

[IllinoisTexan43]

Icomeinpeace is a relative newcomer tro// who posts very juvenile remarks then leaves. Typical of the tro//s here. Never nothing of substance, just empty insults.

[Doris]

they are relying on computers to select photographs? Have the editors all been fired? I find this hard to believe.

[Saxton]

I don't believe the Washington Times excuse, they are lying. And they let a computer select a picture that is "relevant" to the story, I don't think so. John Solomon is lying.

[bygollymissmolly]

No kidding. How is a picture of Sasha and Malia relevant to a story on child murders in Chicago?

[James Redmond]

the theme engine, by virtue of it's automation, must go. Embarrassing and pathetic they didn't catch that.

[MiHi]

Stay classy, Moonie Times!

[ibsteve2u]

"Editor John Solomon told Greg Sargent technology, not a person, was to blame."

Uh huh. And the RNC email server shredded all of those emails 'cuz it had a hangover after getting drunk and laid by a Macintosh.