Spin Cycle

Is that really a naked woman reflected in Cheney’s sunglasses?
(PHOTOS)
By Kevin G. Hall and George Bridges
McClatchy Newspapers
(MCT)
WASHINGTON — He shot his hunting partner, but Vice President Dick
Cheney apparently doesn’t fly fish with naked women.
Since Wednesday, the blogosphere has been atwitter over a
photograph on the White House Web site of Cheney with a caption that
said he was fly-fishing on the Snake River in Idaho.
The photo is a tight shot of Cheney’s face sporting dark sunglasses
and his trademark grin.
What’s stirring all the buzz is the reflection in the vice
president’s dark glasses. Some thought that the reflection looked like
a naked woman and, this being Cheney and this being the Internet Age,
they immediately shared that thought with the world.
In a Google search for the words “Dick Cheney” and
“sunglasses,” 79,300 hits came back at midafternoon on Thursday.
On DemocraticUnderground.com, the discussion starts with this
question: “Notice anything ... interesting ... reflected in his
sunglasses? Something that has little to do with conventional
‘fly-fishing’?”
It wasn’t just the blogosphere. On a Web site called
sportsshooter.com, dedicated to sports photography, professionals also
did a double take and debated the shot on their message board.
“Naked woman??????? That explains his heart problems!!!” noted
photographer Jason Frizzelle of Greenville, N.C.
(EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)
“Holy crap! Is that what I think it is?” wrote one reader of the
blog “A Welsh View.”
“At first glance, I thought it was a naked woman as well,” wrote
Jody Gomez, a photographer from Murrietta, Calif. “However after
close study and a second opinion ... I believe it’s his arm.” Others,
including some White House staffers, saw the profile of a man’s face
and a cigar.
AOL’s Political Machine online column gave readers a chance to vote
on what was reflected in the vice-presidential shades. The four
choices were:
—Hot babe sunbathing.
—Alien overlord.
—That’s not Dick Cheney.
—The image was Photoshopped.
(END OPTIONAL TRIM)
The vice president’s office saw little humor in the buzz.
“Clearly the picture shows a hand casting a rod,” grumbled
spokeswoman Meagan Mitchell.
As journalists, however, the word of an official spokeswoman isn’t
good enough.
So McClatchy/Tribune Information Services photo editor George
Bridges used the latest digital technology to enlarge the picture,
took a close look at Cheney’s sunglasses and concluded that Mitchell
was telling the truth.
The image is of the vice president’s hand on his fly rod.
“In one lens of his sunglasses you can clearly tell it is a
sleeved arm of Cheney or a fishing companion. The other lens has an
extreme distortion that, without looking at it closely, could be
misconstrued,” said investigative photo editor Bridges.
To read what photographers are saying:
http://www.sportsshooter.com/message