NOM, the National Organization For Marriage, is well-known for misappropriating the work of others, and that inappropriate use of copyrighted materials has been well-documented by The New Civil Rights Movement several times. (Not to mention NOM’s penchant for republishing scanned copies of web content, like they did here, and here, and here, in clear violation of copyright norms.) But even we were surprised to learn that the National Organization For Marriage had the audacity to rip off a 2008 Barack Obama campaign rally photograph depicting hundreds of thousands of people listening to candidate Obama speak in St. Louis, and use it to suggest that those same hundreds of thousands of people attended a NOM anti-gay marriage rally.
The photo was taken by acclaimed Reuters photographer Jim Young — who was originally believed to have taken the photograph of Barack Obama upon which artist Shepard Fairey based his iconic Obama Hope posters.
Blogger Jeremy Hooper discovered the fraud and reported on his site, Good As You, writing,
“In order to beef up the reliably poor attendance evidenced by their own rally photos, the National Organization For Marriage adorns its newly-launched New Hampshire for Marriage site with a collage featuring a small photo from their own effort combined with an unidentified shot of a sweepingly large crowd.”
Hooper added, “Yes, that’s right: They lifted a Reuters photo. From another state. From more than three years ago. Featuring a man who stands against NOM’s agenda in most every way possible. Seriously — who does that?!”
That was only part one. Turns out NOM’s crack graphic artist decided to repeat the fraud. Hooper, in a separate post, writes,
“Now comes one more, from the same NOM-branded New Hampshire For Marriage site. And this one is even worse than before in the way it so clearly attempts to make NOM president Brian Brown’s speech seem well-attended.”
Yes, NOM ripped off a photo that appeared on the site Upper Arlington Progressive Action, to illustrate this story:
“Over 60,000 Ohioans turned out Sunday afternoon, November 2, for a campaign rally held on the west lawn of Ohio’s state house in downtown Columbus. The whole Obama family — Barack, Michelle, and their daughters Malia and Sasha — made a final swing through the Buckeye State on the brink of Tuesday’s Election Day.”
It is unclear who originally took the uncredited photo, which now appears as an image on NOM’s New Hampshire For Marriage site (image, above) but what is perfectly clear is, none of these photos are of National Organization For Marriage rallies.
To be clear, this is what a NOM rally looks like:
Also, this.