The Washington Post's White House photographer, Jabin Botsford, captured a highly contentious photograph of U.S president, Donald Trump, in the midst of the COVID-19 chaos.
So often photographers play some role in political history, for better or worse. Sometimes those images are momentous, harrowing photographs of war or revolution, and sometimes they're more quiet and subtle. Botsford's image for the Washington Post is closer to the latter of those, though its impact likely far from momentous. The image is likely to become a strong talking point, however.
This week, Trump has come under fire at press conferences for referring to the coronavirus, COVID-19, as the "Chinese virus." Many questions were raised over whether this was racially motivated, with people coming to Trump's defense to say that the virus did indeed originate in China. Many were unconvinced and felt that it was a calculated move by Trump, and Botsford's image certainly points towards that being correct.
The image clearly shows that Trump's notes for his speech yesterday on COVID-19 originally had "Corona virus" written, which he had crossed out with a marker pen and replaced with "Chinese virus." This photograph will likely spark a lively debate on Trump's intention and call into question his motivations for that change. We are yet again shown the power of photography in even the most unlikely of moments.
I don't need any more evidence to further prove to the world what an idiot he is, even though the awareness is important. What he's doing and more importantly NOT doing is dangerous and self-serving. If you don't agree, then you've not been paying attention.
Seven Trump apologists downvoted you.
Where were you when CNN, MSNBC and the rest of the main stream media were calling it the Chinese virus or the Wuhan flu? Hello? For that matter where was the author of the article? You see you just exposed your hypocrisy. The media was calling it the Chinese virus long before Trump. Just like the Spanish Flu, this one originated in CHINA. Once again Fstoppers shows it's bias and it's ability to write shit articles.
You know the Spanish Flu has two historical origin theories? Kansas and China. Why lie about this? Oh wait...
The Real name should be CCP virus.
The CCP who allowed such animal to be sold in fresh market despite the 2003 outbreak.
That the CCP who jailed the doctor sending alarming call. (And died later of it)
The CCP who paid the WHO to slow down answers.
The CCP to hide real numbers (and Italy can show how much these CCP numbers where fake)
That the offiial CCP PM who said that the virus have been designed by the USA (And Trump stupid enough to answer it)
Any Chinese supporting CCP is to blame for this one.
(But not all Chinese are CCP lovers)
Spot on!
Just checking back to see how well these "opinions" aged, and whether anyone has revised their "pro-trumpster" viewpoints.
I disagree and I’m paying plenty of attention. Btw this article shouldn’t be on Fstoppers, obvious click bait.
And it worked. This seems to be Baggs’ MO lately.
He's just another typical America hater
Well, this should be an interesting thread....
More like very predictable. Have you ever seen or read a fan of any politician saying "Now, this has crossed the line. Now I'm no supporter anymore. I'm changing sides.." That's extremely rare. Changing your opinion or views is for some reason seen as a weakness and not a virtue and sign of intelligence. Especially in the US.
I assume after the PRC propaganda push to blame the USA for the virus this is Trumps way of pushing back.
Like a 10 year old :)
Oh, its the "Orange man bad" article of the week! Well done, you actually tried to explain how this has something to do with photography.
Too bad its just a photo of something you dont like, and you think thats a reason to write an article about it on a site like this.
The left blames Russia, and the right blames China for all our self inflicted problems, and meanwhile the CIA is licking its chops...without the boogeyman of the week they have nothing to support their agenda. And yes, it’s relevant to this site as documentary photography.
The next level of stupidity is him signing a document with a crayon.
How about Pelosi signing each letter of her name with a different pen & giving away pens as commemorative gifts?
The ultra level of stupidity is you believing the memes.
For once in your life, think like an adult. Do you seriously think he'd sign an official document with a crayon? If he were to sign a coloring book and hands it back to you, yeah, that would be believable.
The insidious Trump Derangement Syndrome and political hacks is slowly taking over this web site. Push your Marxist 'Chinese Virus' commie propaganda on a political site. Damn F-Stoppers get control of your TDS infected SJW clowns soon, or some of us are going to start to bail.
We have the same racist clown over here in the UK, as Jarvis Cocker said/sung "C**ts are still running the world"
.
Funny how many epidemiologists have appeared on the internet as of late.
Racist prick!
Is Chinese Food racist? If the Chinese would have acted 3 weeks earlier 80%-95% of the worldwide cases could have been prevented. They have blood on their hands and we are going to pay dearly for this. By the way the virus is non-partisan. It kills equally.
"By the way the virus is non-partisan. It kills equally." A good reason to use it's given name rather than associating a race to it wouldnt you agree?
Good! "Coronavirus" and "Chinese Virus" and "Wuhan Virus" are the same thing. Got to call it for what it is.
All 3 of them would be inaccurate. The first is not descriptive enough as there are many varieties of coronaviruses. The second one would suggest that this is the only virus to come out of China, which it isn't. The third suffers from the same problem given that we can assume that there are probably a number of viruses in that bio research facility. This is the type of problem that happens when media sensationalizes stuff and, in the process, dumbs things down to the common denominator.
No, they are all accurate. Your comments are the type of problem that tries too hard to be PC. Sometimes, you just have to face facts.
What about Kung Flu?
Who cares.. this website is garbage now. Do we really need more political posts on here? How about writing articles about things to do while everything is shut down. How about writing articles about funny things that have happened during your career as a photographer. We have a million other things we can think about write now vs what the president is doing to piss people off. Thank god ive got an ad blocker and just wont be buying any more of their video tutorials (if one of the people that run the site want to look at my purchase history on here they will see ive spent a decent amount of money here).
Even though this is a photography web site, it is still an open forum.
Do we really need more negativity right now? Does this help the situation at all? All articles like this do is piss people off and get them fighting in the comments section. Just a few days ago they posted an article questioning if the media was being racist in posting photos of asian people wearing masks. Really at the end of the day nobody gives a shit if Trump crossed out some words other than the people just looking for reasons to be mad at him. Hell even democrats that were high fiving each other when they impeached Trump are actually praising him now for how he is handling this. A CNN anchor basically said Trump is exactly what the country needs during this time. Meanwhile on fstoppers we get articles if something is racist or questioning why he crossed out coronavirus and put in china virus. Who gives a shit.
I have an issue with the phrase who gives a shit, if you give a shit you are leaving something behind, if you take a shit, well that's backwards because you are coming out with less than what you went in with, so actually you gave a shit, but then who really gives a shit anyway.
Hillary Clinton left 4 people alone to die in Bengazi.
These idiotic comments by the orange virus-45 lovers. We're all going to die.
I prefer the term "Kung Flu." But seriously folks, Chinese is not a race. Chinese is a nationality. The term "Chinese Flu" cannot be racist. If racism now consists of Trump substituting a different adjective in a speech, I'd say racism is not nearly the problem some say it is. People are not charitable to China, so what? They gave us SARS (from bats, again) and now COVID-19. China is a bad country. Criticism that misses the mark is, at worst, inaccurate. Who can manifest sympathy for such an evil government? I'll answer my own question: people who hate Trump enough to use his edit against him to point out his "racism." Don't allow your (often well-deserved) hatred for Trump to cloud your thinking.
A corona virus is a virus that is usually transmitted between animals and does not infect humans. When it makes the jump to humans then it becomes something else and once humans can transmit it to other humans we have a real problem. In this case the WHO and the CDC named it Covid 19
I fear that COVID-19 or a mutation of it could jump back into animals - specifically, the cows, pigs and chickens grown on factory farms in the US. The close proximity of these animals would lead to a massive die off and make food much more expensive - not to mention the huge reduction in the deliciousness of our diets.
hahaha... idiot photographers acting smart... too funny. Relax button pushers.
The more people engage with this the more he wins. Ignore it!
As we speak we are short of PPE. China has been donating to neighboring countries and their manufacturing units are back on line. We need their help. Insulting them serves no purpose.
Trumps failure as president to lead our countries best minds and resources to prepare for this pandemic is deserving of a name...."The Trump Virus." He miserably failed.
Wonderful idea. Let's make it go viral
So sorry to the Chinese people, they have suffered for so long. It should be called the CCP corona virus. The Chinese Communist Party should take the blame for this.
Read up on the Revolution. The chinese people made their society what it is today. No sympathy deserved. However, lessons to learn are that the socialist libtards of today are oh-so-close to performing the same revolution in our great country today... if only Pelosi or Schiff had the balls to be a Mao type of leader. The indoctrination has been taking place for 70 years.
Oh yeah. No alias used here.
Kung Flu, anyone?
This is a good example of photography capturing a moment that is important to society (whichever side of the fence you're on).
It may be click bait, but any controversial photo of a topic like this will be.
whatever his intention, Jabin Botsford did his job well as a press photographer.
OMG!!!!! Trump edited a speech.
The virus would never have made it here if Bernie was elected! There wouldn't be a global economy left afloat to afford international travel