Did Clinton Darken Obama's Skin? NOPE

[maddiejoan]

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/did_clinton_darken_obamas_skin.html

<snip>
Some Obama backers cry "racism." We find the accusation to be unsubstantiated.
Summary
Obama supporters on the Internet are agitated over the apparent darkening of Obama's image in a Clinton attack ad.

Our video team took a look. Our conclusions:
The Obama frames from the ad do appear darker than other video of Obama from the same event.

However, the YouTube copy of the ad, on which the bloggers base their conclusions, is darker overall than other copies of the ad. We obtained a digital recording of the ad as it actually appeared on a Texas TV station, and it is lighter.

Furthermore, our analysis of the Obama frames, using Photoshop, shows a fairly uniform darkening of the entire image including the backdrop. It is not just Obama's skin color that's affected.

Also, nearly all the images in the ad are dark, including those of Hillary Clinton. And dark images are a common technique used in attack ads.
Others will speculate about the Clinton campaign's intentions and motives, as they already have. But without further evidence to the contrary, we see no reason to conclude that this is anything more than a standard attempt to make an attack ad appear sinister, rather than a special effort to exploit racial bias as some Obama supporters are saying.
<snip>

[Qanisqineq]

1. don't forget the pajamas

I don't know if it's in the same ad, but the pajamas in the "telephone at 3 am" ad have NIG on them.
Oh, and they widened his nose.
:crazy:

I was trying to respond to one of the threads about the "darker skin, more black" thing yesterday. Whenever I see an attack ad, the opposing candidate is always either in muted or darker coloring. The coloring isn't cheerful.

:banghead:

[JohnnyLib2]

2. Thanks, we'll need this one from factcheck.

:thumbsup:

[libbygurl]

3. Them's doing the race-baiting again, just like SC. Hilarious and pathetic.

See Crisco's post here on the 'unintentional humor' of a DU member insisting on the alleged race-baiting ad.

The best comment - something along the lines of 'so the voters did not know O was black before the ad aired?'

You just gotta shake your head at these absurdities.

[maddiejoan]

4. OMG!

check out how black and widened he is on this better quality version of the TV ad!

http://www.factcheck.org/video/clintontruecmagcodeddownbestquality.wmv

Is that Barack Obama? Or is it Paul Robeson? I can't tell!

[robbedvoter]

5. It's called sharptonizing - and it's lower than ever...

[anamandujano]

6. Whenever I gather movies and render them in Quicktime, everything gets very dark.

It is awful. If you try to lighten it, the file is too big for youtube.

Glad you're on the case Maddie.

[robbedvoter]

7. Whenever I get screencaps from you tube (daily) - I have to brighten them

between 50-100%