Real or Fake? Communist Browder
and Democrat Tydings
Toronto. It is often thought that manipulation of photographs only happened after Photoshop and its ilk arrived on the scene. However, decades before Photoshop, a savvy darkroom expert could seamlessly blend or otherwise manipulate two or more negatives or prints to appear as a single print.
Those of you who follow American political history will recognize the names Butler (R) and Tydings (D) who fought in the fall 1950 elections to be Senator of Maryland. Butler, the Republican won, in part due to this fake photo implying that Tydings is getting advice from the communist leader, Earl Browder. The doctored photo was circulated in a newspaper funded by the Republican winner, Mr Butler, just before the fall election.
The USA was founded by conservative religious folk called Pilgrims, banished from England. In the states, Republicans are like Conservatives here, devoted to right wing beliefs while Democrats are like Liberals here, big government and more left wing ideas. American communists were far, far left in their beliefs. Lately, the Republicans have been taken over by the Tea Party folk: those with far right wing conservative ideals as espoused by the current President.
Research by LIFE magazine turned up the Tydings part of the photo as a 1938 print of him listening to a radio broadcast (of election returns) while the Browder shot was a reversed image of the gentleman answering questions at a US Senate investigation … Who says cameras never lie?
