Below you'll see the Oct. 11, 2008, cover of Newsweek. As someone in the know, Newsweek did not retouch it in any noticeable way, making it barely press-ready. While onscreen versions always lose something, click on the images to see a larger, better snapshot (or right-click on each image and save image to desktop). What may not be readily apparent in the 'original' cover is the upper-lip moustache most women have (including models), blotchy, rash-like skin, bloodshot eyes, liver-spotted nose, and more. Any time you have an extreme close-up shot, our human imperfections are enlarged to the point of caricature. Which I believe was the point Meacham was trying to make with the unflattering photo.

I spent about 10 minutes on the 'after' cover to show readers how simple it is to make a bad photograph look semi-good, while not changing the essence of how the person looks. Keep in mind Newsweek's cover shot of Obama featured a brightly lit halo above and beyond his head giving him a 'messenger from God' look. Meacham's snarky cover story about Palin also shows he is completely in the tank for Obama and isn't embarrassed to hide it. 

Original photo

Few minutes in Photoshop

Magazine editors honor global warming image that angered veterans. 

How do you get nominated for a magazine award? Do something that offends almost everyone and tears down an American icon at the same time. Even better, claim you were just trying to get “attention.”

That’s certainly the strategy Time magazine deployed and they are seeing the benefits. Time’s persistent global warming hype led it to run a cover photo of the Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima – only the magazine deleted the flag and replaced it with a tree. The cover read: “How To Win The War On Global Warming.”

The cover, skewered by veterans, critics and even the National Press Photographers Association, was just nominated for an award from the American Society of Magazine Editors. Time was even picked as a 2008 Best Cover Concept Finalist for the design – competing with The New Yorker, Wired and Vanity Fair.

The controversy began with the April 28 issue when Time doctored the famous Iwo Jima photograph by Joe Rosenthal of the Marines raising the American flag. The cover story by Bryan Walsh called green “the new red, white and blue.”

Predictions of open water prove incorrect as 1.74 million square miles of ice survive.

So much for the media hype about Arctic ice disappearing this summer.

Less than three months ago, NBC’s Anne Thompson was warning ominously of ice loss. “But this summer, some scientists say that ice could retreat so dramatically that open water covers the North Pole, so much so that you could sail across it.”

Both are still with us – the ice and the hype. According to a September 16 National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) report, such predictions were off by 1.74 million square miles.

NSIDC reported ice loss was less than in 2007. “On September 12, 2008, sea ice extent dropped to 4.52 million square kilometers (1.74 million square miles). This appears to have been the lowest point of the year, as sea has now begun its annual cycle of growth in response to autumn cooling,” according to the organization.

BBC2 ‘Climate Wars’ is FRAUD WITH LIPSTICK SAYS SCIENTIST - BBC ATTACKED FOR LACK OF INTEGRITY AND CHALLENGED TO DEBATE

1. This ‘Climate wars’ production is a shameful and desperate effort from the BBC’s ‘green religion department’ to shore up the failing theory of CO2 driven Global warming and Climate Change. The piece, and the Global Warmers camp in general, while pretending to be objective skilfully avoid applying sound science and provide no answers to the mounting  evidence which refutes the crumbling Global Warmers theory. It puts lipstick on scientific fraud but it remains fraud.

=> They selectively report part of ‘weak’ sceptics contributions which are muddled and AVOID proper interviews with scientists who can soundly refute every wriggle of the Global Warmers mantra.

According to Rasmussen, fully 68% of voters believe that "most reporters try to help the candidate they want to win." And -- no surprise -- 49% of those surveyed believe reporters are backing Barack Obama, while just 14% think the media is in the tank for Sen. McCain.

Meanwhile, 51% of those surveyed thought the press was "trying to hurt" Mrs. Palin with its coverage.