Associated Press Publishes Photos Of Pistol Pointed At Ted Cruz's Head

Mediaite.com:

The Associated Press found itself in hot water late Sunday evening when it published a photograph of Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) with a background poster depicting a handgun coincidentally pointed in the direction of the senator’s face.

According to Politico, the photograph was taken by the AP’s Charlie Neibergall during Cruz’s Saturday appearance at CrossRoads Shooting Sports in Johnston, Iowa. See the image below:

Of course, that set off conservative commentators and social media users: Breitbart News and others suggested such an image would never be taken of a Democrat.

And so, last night, the AP’s director of media relations Paul Colford released a statement explaining the photograph, but not apologizing:

Presidential candidate Ted Cruz was shown in a series of 14 photos taken by an Associated Press photographer at a ‘Celebrate the 2nd Amendment’ event Saturday afternoon, held at a shooting range in Johnston, Iowa. Five of the photos published by AP included images of guns seen on a wall in the background so that it appeared a pistol was pointed at Sen. Cruz’s head. The images were not intended to portray Sen. Cruz in a negative light.

This was clearly intentional and politically motivated.

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