"You Lie!" - Who took the picture of Joe Wilson? And how?

(pardon me if I put this in the wrong section, I gave up trying to decide and put it in psychology because the website posing the question is Psychology Today, MOD please move if you feel the thread is in the wrong place)

Please follow the link to read the article in whole before posting.
www.psychologytoday.com...
This is excerpt from an online editorial from Satoshi Kanazawa, and Evolutionary Psychologist at the London School of Economics of Political Science on the Psychology Today website, dated Sept. 10, 2009.

So here's what I don't understand. If Joe Wilson's outburst during Obama's speech Wednesday night was truly "spontaneous," as Wilson claims, and no one (including Wilson himself) could have anticipated it, how come there is a sharply focused and neatly centered picture of Wilson right at the moment he shouted "You lie!" when the outburst lasted less than a second? In the picture, Wilson's mouth is still open, apparently in the middle of his shouting "lie."

I had not even thought about the outburst in the context of a closed session. Nor had I thought about the extremely low profile the congressman. I just figured Joe Wilson was some Republican I had never heard of, that he was not from my state, and that his supposed spontaneous act of defiance was an exercise is blustery, feather rustling politics. I knew that it was orchestrated, I just didn't realize that it was such an orchestrated piece of theater, and that the documentation of his actions was a concerted propaganda effort, due to closed nature of the proceedings.

I would like my fellow ATSers to discuss this orchestrated drama, and how it psychologically works on the populace. What was your reaction to the outburst? What is your reaction to the idea that "Congressman Joe Wilson doth protest too much", and this type of political stagecraft?

For me, the outburst by the congressman was more than disrespectful, it was out of line in a cheap, grandstanding way. A congressman is elected to represent the people who voted for them, not to express their own personal, spontaneous thoughts as a heckler. To know think about the facts of the events, I come to the same conclusion as Satoshi Kanazawa, and the act of heckling was a deliberate and well thought out act. I am not purporting a vast conspiracy on the matter, but perhaps something as simple as a heads up from the Congressman's staffers to a photog to keep an eye on the Congressman, he is guaranteed to blow up during the speech is enough conspiring to document the act as propaganda.

Maybe I am wrong, but I would love to discuss the possibilities of such.
DocMoreau

Maybe that picture was taken when he was saying "no...." or "booo..." or "no way..." There were a few times when the Republicans erupted in vocalizations while Obama was speaking. I'm sure someone had their camera trained on them to capture their responses. To me, it doesn't even look like he's saying "you" or "lie" in that picture. His mouth looks more like he's saying "Ahhh".

The guy sitting next to him on the left is more interesting to me. Looks like he is trying to hold back laughter like I used to in class.

I don't know, on second thought he might be thinking, of all the seats I chose to sit next to this idiot.

[edit on 11-9-2009 by seagrass]

Cameramen are all over the place, tuck nicely into the corners of Congress. Any number of them could have gotten this photo.

He had his photo taken at the exact same time he yelled what he did. Pure coincidence I think. Just like the pic of those marines raising the flag at Iwa Jima, coincidence.

Originally posted by DocMoreau
(pardon me if I put this in the wrong section, I gave up trying to decide and put it in psychology because the website posing the question is Psychology Today, MOD please move if you feel the thread is in the wrong place)

Please follow the link to read the article in whole before posting.
www.psychologytoday.com...
This is excerpt from an online editorial from Satoshi Kanazawa, and Evolutionary Psychologist at the London School of Economics of Political Science on the Psychology Today website, dated Sept. 10, 2009.

So here's what I don't understand. If Joe Wilson's outburst during Obama's speech Wednesday night was truly "spontaneous," as Wilson claims, and no one (including Wilson himself) could have anticipated it, how come there is a sharply focused and neatly centered picture of Wilson right at the moment he shouted "You lie!" when the outburst lasted less than a second? In the picture, Wilson's mouth is still open, apparently in the middle of his shouting "lie."

I had not even thought about the outburst in the context of a closed session. Nor had I thought about the extremely low profile the congressman. I just figured Joe Wilson was some Republican I had never heard of, that he was not from my state, and that his supposed spontaneous act of defiance was an exercise is blustery, feather rustling politics. I knew that it was orchestrated, I just didn't realize that it was such an orchestrated piece of theater, and that the documentation of his actions was a concerted propaganda effort, due to closed nature of the proceedings.

I would like my fellow ATSers to discuss this orchestrated drama, and how it psychologically works on the populace. What was your reaction to the outburst? What is your reaction to the idea that "Congressman Joe Wilson doth protest too much", and this type of political stagecraft?

For me, the outburst by the congressman was more than disrespectful, it was out of line in a cheap, grandstanding way. A congressman is elected to represent the people who voted for them, not to express their own personal, spontaneous thoughts as a heckler. To know think about the facts of the events, I come to the same conclusion as Satoshi Kanazawa, and the act of heckling was a deliberate and well thought out act. I am not purporting a vast conspiracy on the matter, but perhaps something as simple as a heads up from the Congressman's staffers to a photog to keep an eye on the Congressman, he is guaranteed to blow up during the speech is enough conspiring to document the act as propaganda.

Maybe I am wrong, but I would love to discuss the possibilities of such.
DocMoreau

I gave a long-winded explanation in the other thread about PSYCHOLOGY TODAY and how ridiculous that bit of propaganda is. POPULAR MECHANICS/PSYCHOLOGY TODAY editors are shilling. They are on the payroll.

The answer is this: Multiple HD cams are getting every angle possible during the speech. Everyone in the room is on camera. It would be IMPOSSIBLE for any Congressman to shout like a refugee from a Palin rally and NOT be on camera. (And that's not including the various still photographers shooting reactions at the same time)

Had a still photo not appeared at least by the following day I'd have thought they were protecting the schmuck.

The bottom line is he behaved like a lunatic while cameras were pointed at him. Of course it will be on the news.

btw- He was confusing all the various ideas being pushed with what Obama is actually calling for. It clearly states in Obama's plan that no illegal will be covered under the plan. However, the same emergency room procedures we had in place during Bush remains in effect.

The emotional fellow was simply wrong.

The entire audience is constantly photographed at events like this. Someone caught giving a sour face makes for good copy. The picture of him was cropped out of a larger picture.

I believe this photograph taken of his 2nd outburst. If you remember, he said 'you lie' loud enough that this cause Nanci Poloski to turn and look and comment to Joe Biden what was said. Then, Joe the Heckler said 'you Lie' again. So a camera operator would have time to turn and photograph his 2nd outburst.

Not the sharpest tools in the shed, these office workers at Psychology Today. Satoshi Kanazawa needs to get his head out of the books and onto the streets to gather some street cred and some common sense.

reply to post by jd140


The flag raising by the marines was planned and staged by the photographer well after the actual event. Funny that you use that as an example...so maybe that outburst was staged as well.

[edit on 11-9-2009 by DJMSN]

Even if it were the 1st outburst I wouldn't be surprised if there was a good picture of it. A good cameraman can react with lightning speed (I don't)
Also that picture is quite small, could've been cropped.

If you remember the video, there was a lot of booing before the outburst.

Video camera pans to that area, he yells you lie, edit for still of him shouting, publish.

Very good points by everyone.

I am of the opinion that Joe Wilson's outburst was staged, and the cameraman informed to be ready.

DocMoreau