The Associated Press has found itself under fire over some photos taken Saturday depicting Sen. Ted Cruz and a poster of a gun pointed at his head.
The photographs, by AP photographer Charlie Neibergall, was taken while Cruz was talking at the Celebrate the 2nd Amendment event in Iowa. Cruz, a Republican presidential candidate, has been a huge supporters of gun rights. Despite the criticisms, the AP notes it was not trying to make the senator look bad.
“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 AP told The Daily Caller News Foundation in a prepared statement. “The images were not intended to portray Sen. Cruz in a negative light.”
Nevertheless, critics argue the photos were tasteless and that the same thing wouldn’t happen to a candidate on the left.
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“I can’t wait to see a similar photo involving leftist Democratic Party 2016 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who perhaps to many readers’ surprise, has to a fair extent been a supporter of Second Amendment rights,” Tom Blumer of News Busters wrote.
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“But imagine the outcry were he a Democrat,” an opinion piece from Breitbart stated. “How many think pieces about violent imagery and responsible reporting would we see? How many more if he were a woman?”
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