TMZ Falls For JFK Photo Hoax
One of the world’s most highly-trafficked websites fell victim to a bizarre photo hoax on Monday, damaging its credibility and illuminating the perils of online journalism.
TMZ.com – the website which broke the news of Michael Jackson’s death earlier this year – proclaimed early Monday morning (with a banner headline) that it had uncovered “The JFK Photo That Could Have Changed History.”
The picture purported to show then-Senator John F. Kennedy on a yacht in the Mediterranean Sea in August of 1956 – right around the time his pregnant wife, Jackie, was delivering a stillborn daughter. Surrounding “Kennedy” are naked women.
The website proceeded to lay out the photo’s back story, saying that it was “given to a man who owned a car dealership on the East coast. The man kept it in a drawer for years, and would brag to friends he had an image of JFK on a boat with naked women.”
Here’s the mildly NSFW picture …
(click to enlarge)
And here’s where it gets interesting …
From TMZ.com:
TMZ had multiple experts examine the photo — all say there is no evidence the picture was Photoshopped. The original print — which is creased — was scanned and examined for evidence of inconsistent lighting, photo composition and other forms of manipulation. The experts all concluded the photo appears authentic.
Professor Jeff Sedlik, a forensic photo expert, says the print appears to be authentic. Sedlik says the photo is printed on paper consistent with what was used in the 1950s. The emulsion on the surface of the print has numerous cracks — the result of aging and handling.
Yeah … TMZ clearly needs to get some new photo experts.
Shortly after its “exclusive” post went up, The Smoking Gun exposed the photo as a hoax. Accusing TMZ of a “colossal screw-up,” The Smoking Gun discovered that the real image was actually taken from a November 1967 issue of Playboy magazine – four years after Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas, Texas.
Here’s the real (again, mildly NSFW) image …
The model mistaken for JFK was called “Andy” by the Playboy editors, and the picture was taken not in the Mediterranean, but rather off the coast of Petit Rameau, an island in the Grenadines (which is in the Caribbean).
TMZ later acknowledged that the photo was a fake and returned to covering celebrity gossip again …
In related news, FITS fell victim to a slightly less monumental Wilford Brimley photo hoax earlier Monday …
Comments
By SnakeMD on December 28th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Maybe the photo is real and Kennedy is not dead after all. So, who was that riding with Jackie in Dallas? If Elvis can still be around, why not JFK?
By CNSYD on December 28th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
JFK cheating on his wife? Who would ever believe a story that implied that? Next you will try to tell me Bobby hit on Jackie.
By Liberty For Me on December 28th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
I think these are probably the same experts who say that the sea level is rising and Florida is going to be under water soon….
By John Rowland on December 29th, 2009 at 4:48 am
Did He wear it out ?
By Billy Bob on December 29th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
I recognized that Pic! Has to do with being in college in ‘67
By max on December 29th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Aside from the vastly different hairstyles of the participants ranging from the woodstock era (1969) to the pepsi generation of 15 years after, the cropped features that look as they were done with an x-acto knife, and the overtly, felliniesque gone-with-the-wind/wizard-of-oz best of the golden age of cinema technicolor from 1939, AND THE FACT that JFK NEARLY TWO DECKS AWAY FROM ALL THAT BEGUILING FEMANIN…FIMINI…ALL THOSE WOMEN’S….. it’s a dandy likeness..
By Re-tyred on December 30th, 2009 at 7:21 am
JFK? “Andy”? That’s Elvis, for crying out loud!
By alfred e. newman on January 2nd, 2010 at 8:59 am
did he died?
By Osbro on January 2nd, 2010 at 4:26 pm
You mean that women were easy (had sex before being married) even back then??
By Straphanger10029 on January 2nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
“One of the world’s most highly-trafficked websites fell victim to a bizarre photo hoax on Monday, damaging its credibility and illuminating the perils of online journalism.”
Damaging its credibility???? Lol, the joke is that anyone believes TMZ has any credibility at all.
By Horatio Algae on January 2nd, 2010 at 8:17 pm
This is really a photo of JFK while serving in the USN circa 1942 in the south Pacific/Solomon Islands. The background to the story and the photo is the USN was seriously considering conscripting women into military service and allowing females to serve aboard combat vessels. JFK, then a young Lieutenant (jg) voluntered for this special mission to ascertain if men can serve onboard ship for long periods of time. The experiment was a complete success but the idea had to be when five of the six women included in this experiment turned up pregnant and the males aboard ship all came down with a dose of the clap. The sixth female test subject turned out to be transgendered trans-sexual – this is where the phrase chick with a dick entered the lexicon. Shortly after the study JFK became a war hero and received the Navy/Marine Life Saving Medal. When asked why he volunteered for this study, the young lieutenant (jg) was quoted as saying “ask not what your country can do for you, ask who you can do for your country.” The rest, as they say is history.
By Horatio Algae on January 2nd, 2010 at 8:23 pm
Ask Not if the photo is fake – ask what TMZ can do to make money?
By Yeah right! on January 2nd, 2010 at 9:24 pm
The photo is fake. JFK never liked women…everyone knows that…TMZ is bad very bad…did you guys know that TMZ had once said “wouldn’t it be great if Brittany Murphy died and we were the first to report it!”.
By jess ruiz on January 3rd, 2010 at 12:12 am
I cannot believe half of the comments made above. They are so ignorant, man…they have to be from brain-dead, uneducated extremist. The original photo was displayed below the black and white and and it’s origin were explained, yet you still get these dumb remarks and responses.
By Horatio Algae on January 4th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
Fact is … JFK like Elvis, William Jefferson (aka Slick Willy) Clinton – and I wonder why he was monikured “Slick Willy” though I can use my imagination – and of late Tiger “Woody” Woods all compulsive womanizers.
Any other male would be labelled as a mysogynist (or is that massage gynist?) and would be decried in all the feminine magazines as evil. I can understand why Tiger gets a pass – and I am refering to the political correct environment here, but the other three, what is their excuse?