During the 2004 presidential election campaign

United States presidential election, 2004

The United States presidential election of 2004 was the United States' 55th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. Republican Party candidate and incumbent President George W. Bush defeated Democratic Party candidate John Kerry, the then-junior U.S. Senator...

 an image was released that appeared to show John Kerry

John Kerry

John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...

 and Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...

 speaking together at an anti-Vietnam war

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

 protest. The image turned out to be a politically motivated forgery

Forgery

Forgery is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with the intent to deceive. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through knowing and willful misrepresentations. Forging money or...

. The image was photo-shopped by a member of FreeRepublic.com and released there and at the member's home site to tarnish Kerry's war record by associating him with Jane Fonda, a vilified anti-war protester.

Cut and Paste

The image is actually a composite of two different images one of Kerry taken on June 13, 1971 at an anti-war rally in Mineola, N.Y. and another of Jane Fonda taken in August, 1972 speaking at a Miami Beach, Fla. rally. The images were combined and then further altered to appear as if the combined image was from an old newspaper clipping. A caption was also added stating, "Actress And Anti-War Activist Jane Fonda Speaks to a crowd of Vietnam Veterans as Activist and Former Vietnam Vet John Kerry (LEFT) listens and prepares to speak next concerning the war in Vietnam (AP Photo) " even though Fonda was not present when Kerry gave his speech.

The most influential media outlet to be taken in was the New York Times, which cited the image in a Sheryl Gay Stolberg story datelined Feb. 12. The Times acknowledged the image as a forgery on Feb. 14. That photo drew prominent play on the site of www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnkerry.com, run by Kinston, N.C., businessman Ted Sampley. Another prominent site, NewsMax.com, touted the photo, as did countless partisan weblogs. Right wing anti-Kerry supporters claim that the original Kerry image is the fake and that the combined image is the real image even though the copyright owner of the Kerry image, Ken Light, has the original negatives. Ken Light, when asked on what the lesson to be learned from the story was quoted as saying:
The only known authentic photograph in which Kerry and Fonda appears is this one taken in 1970 by Leif Skoogfors at a rally at Valley Forge, PA in 1970. Fonda sits close to the camera, while some 10 meters away sits an out of focus John Kerry. The photograph was stolen from Skoogfors' image distributor and posted on The Free Republic website. It was then circulated to hundreds of other anti-Kerry sites. On The Free Republic, on one of multiple postings, a Viet Cong flag was added next to Kerry.

Lawsuit

In 2005 the copyright owner of the Kerry image, Ken Light, managed to track down the creator of the image, Richard Taylor, and sued him in New York Federal District Court for copyright infringement. Light sought damages of $200,000 plus legal fees. (Franken, the Fonda photographer, is not involved in the lawsuit.) Before the case went to trial Judge William H. Pauley III threw the lawsuit out stating that since Light lives in California and Taylor in Michigan, the case is outside the court's jurisdiction.
The case is under appeal.

External links

• The original Kerry image taken on June 13, 1971 at an anti-war rally in Mineola, N.Y.
• The original Jane Fonda image taken in August, 1972 speaking at a Miami Beach, Fla. rally
• Real image of Kerry and Fonda together at an anti-war rally taken at a September 1970 anti-war rally in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania