Oklahoma Independent Media Center

The front page of the Oklahoma Republican Party's web site presents an image of the Speaker of the House, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, which they accurately refer to as "disturbing".

But the disturbing aspect of the image is its relationship to reality and its use on the website of a supposedly reputable organization of mature adults to disparage its subject in a not-so-subtle fashion. The image is clearly digitally distorted ("Photoshopped")in order to present the Speaker as old, haggard and ugly, with heavily rouged cheeks, sloppy lipstick and lines, bulges and veins that do not actually exist on the Speaker's face.

(This image shows the GOP image alongside a real photo taken from a similar angle, enlarged and cropped to match the first image for the sake of comparison.)

A screen capture of the web page (taken at 9:54 pm on Saturday, May 5) shows the image used to link to an editorial, "Tom Cole's Job: Take Back the House" by George Will which features the third-term Oklahoma Republican who serves as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee -- the group charged with finding good candidates and supporting their campaigns. Above the image is the teaser "Tom Cole's Job: get rid of Speaker Pelosi
(click disturbing photo)".

Click here for (disturbing) screenshot of the section of the page in question.

The Oklahoma GOP version of the image was sent out to Oklahoma liberal and progressive activists Saturday evening.

OKIMC has requested a response from the Oklahoma Democratic Party. If and when one is received, this story will be updated.