White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was going about her business yesterday, doing the daily press briefing, when she got an unexpected question from a member of the White House press corps. Interestingly enough, the journalist was an American, not a Brit. The journo asked if the Biden White House digitally altered photos before releasing them to the public. She was unamused with the question:
CBS News’ @edokeefe: “Does the White House ever digitally alter photos of the president, VP, first lady, or second gentleman before they’re released?”
WH Press Sec. Karine Jean-Pierre: “Why does the monarch have to do anything with us? No, that is not something that we do here.” pic.twitter.com/HgewN4TPNV
— The Recount (@therecount) March 12, 2024
This is getting a surprising amount of coverage in both the British and American media, and it was one of the leading stories in the Mail yesterday too:
The White House said it ‘does not alter photos’ of President Joe Biden or any officials in its first comments on the Kate Middleton Mother’s Day Photoshop fail.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the top spokesperson for the administration, was asked if the White House ever digitally altered photos of officials before releasing them to the public.
‘Are you comparing us to the what’s going on in the UK?,’ she asked before adding: ‘What does the monarchy have to do anything with us? No, that is not something that we do here.’
Kensington Palace’s release of the photo and subsequent apology from the Princess of Wales caused a stir in the UK, trended on social media around the world, and led to a slew of conspiracy theories.
Jean-Pierre did say the White House offered Kate a ‘speedy recovery’ from her abdominal surgery. ‘We will offer speedy recovery and I’m just gonna leave it there. I don’t have anything else to share,’ Jean-Pierre said.
What’s funny is that last year, Buckingham Palace and the Tory press joined forces to scream, cry and throw up about President Biden and his refusal to attend King Charles’s coronation. The palace was absolutely part of it, with courtiers openly calling Biden an ancient old geezer who was too weak to travel to the Chubbly… meanwhile, Irish Joe got a rock star reception when he visited Ireland just before the coronation. I guess my point is, as always, f–k around and find out. Now that the British monarchy’s Photoshop shenanigans have made them a global laughing stock, they could have used some cover from the Biden White House. No cover was given.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Kensington Palace.
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- White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks during the press briefing in the James S Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House Featuring: Karine Jean-Pierre Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 11 Jan 2024 Credit: POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com
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- White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre looks on as White House Counsel’s Office spokesman Ian Sams speaks during the press briefing at the White House. Featuring: Ian Sams, Karine Jean-Pierre Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 09 Feb 2024 Credit: POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com
The Bidens are in public photos and news videos frequently, so sort of a stupid question.
Yeah, they have actual jobs that require them to work, so they can’t just sign off for weeks and months.
Side note: I saw a comment on twitter about how this is so revealing of how much the Washington press corp is slavering for a Trump return and the golden days of scandal journalism. Scarily accurate in my opinion.
Because competency is boring for those who trade in outrage. Everyone who was even tangentially involved in the previous administration has written a book, and the bosses at CNN and MSNBC flat out said they had much higher ratings 2017-2020. They don’t care about the real threat to democracy and the actual lives of people who are impacted by regressive policies.
Trump still gets more coverage than Biden, even factoring in all his criminal indictments. And now that Trump and Biden are presumptive nominees, we will see how heavily the coverage favors Trump. In 2016, Trump completely dominated the election coverage. Clinton was only mentioned in conjunction with the very much invented email “scandal”. Liberal media, my arse.
Why is the White House dragged into PhotoGate.
I think the reporter was having a bit of fun. people in the room were chuckling.
photogate does have larger implications tho. this photo was presented as news, in a press release. the wire agencies ran it without a thought, because they run everything from the BRF. up until now, they were considered a trustworthy source.
next time a fake gets through it will be much harder to spot, and could potentially have damaging real world effects. that’s the bigger issue here.
This is so embarrassing! They are a laughing stock and Peg managed to completely hide behind his sick wife and attach her name alone to this very damaging story. This is abuse. I know who Kate really is, but an abuser can also be abused and it’s not OK.
The whole situation looks like Peg attached this rock to Kate’s feet and threw her into the ocean, so she will never surface in public life again.
“No, that kinda incompetent, dishonest shenanigans is not something we do here.”
Lmao. The unintentional (?) shade!!!
Kate deserves every single word of criticism/snark/what have you for how she treated Meghan, or for being lazy. That’s what accoubtability looks like. But I completely agree with you – even abusers don’t deserve abuse. Kate doesn’t deserve to be thrown under the bus by her own damn husband, and that’s sure what this looks like… William is a piece of work.
It’s blowing up the whole statesmen image. Embarrassing! The shambolic monarchy being discussed at a WH press conference😂
Being discussed, and being laughed at!
Is SNL new this week? If so I can’t wait for them to do sketch involving photoshop and poor missing Kate.
Hopefully, but they’ll have a hard time topping last Saturday’s send up of Katie Britt. Instant classic.
Chloe Finemann would make a good Kate. Sarah Sherman doing a “bad PR person” bit. James Austin Johnson as William (do NOT let Mikey Day scream his way through being William).
No cover given for real. I don’t actually like her answer, though. I think she should have responded that WH photos are digitally edited within “established journalistic standards.” Every professional photo released in 2024 has been altered in some way. I realize this is semantics, but the British Media is trying to make this seem like the news agencies are picking on Kate (well, William and KP). They are not.
No, this answer is too nuanced for an election year. At this point, they need to shut down the subject right away.
Weelll – the Wales wanted to be big in America and they are certainly making the headlines now…
Hahahahaha.
ETA: the US angle has also blown the whole Rose Hanbury thing wide open again. When Colbert’s opening monologue is all about Kate going missing because of the affair – whooee.
Sorry UK monarchy, the cheese stands alone. Don’t be looking for cover from this side of the pond, at least not from Rockstar Joe. Better ask your super fan tRump he’s as honest as you guys are.
Well William and Kate have finally made it in the US.
It’s surprising how far reaching this story is. My contractor was here painting yesterday and he was listening to his local sports talk radio station. Even they were talking about the doctored photo and what a mess it was. I was flabbergasted.
Same here. My coworkers are talking about nonstop and even some of people at industry and networking events I have attended in the past week have been talking about it. Someone on social media called it this year’s OceanGate — a scandal and mystery that has gotten loads of people on the edge of their seats.
My partner, whose online diet consists of Formula 1, English football, finance channels, AI & tech, Irish politics, and sci fi, asked me about KateM last night.
He doesn’t care about royal stuff *at all*. I was 😲😲😲. So if he’s hearing about it, it is yuuuuge.
My husband is reading Celebitchy every morning now!
My husband asks me every night now lolz..
My husband asks for an update every day and now sends me tweets/articles he sees about it too. It’s hilarious-not his usual cup of tea at all!
They’re going to treat us like dirt and then expect us to cover for them? I think they fundamentally misunderstand American’s fascination (barf) with the BRF. We’re not respectfully fascinated, let’s just put it that way.
Matthew, ikr. The bm (and possibly some residents) have preconceived notions about everything American. They show how incredibly uninformed they are every time they talk about Hollywood. They have no sense of geography, and they think we don’t remember what they think of Americans. They can gaslight their own masses, but the Americans aren’t buying what they’re selling.