Look at these rowers shot by RedStar photographer Jim Gehrz to accompany a story about rowing on the Mississippi. It's clearly impossible for them to pull on the oars all jammed together like that! See the knee of the man in the orange shirt? Do you think he'd still be smiling when the Tunisian in the sunglasses pulls back on the oar and whacks him on the shin? This photo was clearly staged for propaganda purposes to show how the grueling sport is really fun and healthful for average people.
If the online edition had the courage to show the other photos in the print edition, I'd link to them to show you how the paper and the Minneapolis Rowing Club have conspired to lie. The water in the background here is all sparkly, but the water in another photo shot from above is flat and dark, and you can see the people in the boat are really far apart. I'm sure it's the same people as in the other photo, and they have them facing the same way so you think they're all in the same boat.
But do you see a boat in the photo above? No. How about the ends of the oars? Not a single one. And why are they only showing half the oars? Because they are sitting on the dock!
I wish I could show you the third photo, supposedly also on the river. Now the water is blue, and there's a fuzzy view of the Minneapolis skyline in the background. Why is it out of focus? Bad PhotoShop manipulation? Where were those buildings before? And one woman has her arms bent, while the skinhead with the tattoos has his arms extended. Now, look at the shadows on the faces of the two women. The first woman's sunglasses shade her cheek only, but the other woman's cap shades all the way down to the jaw line, indicating these people were shot at different times of day. Do you see a boat?
Of course not! Because there is no boat!
[None of this will make sense unless you read Spotty and Minvolved. A print version of Today's Strib would help, too.]
