The Associated Press explained an image it took of Senator Ted Cruz with a background gun aimed at his head.
“Presidential candidate Ted Cruz was shown in a series of 14 photos taken by an Associated Press photographer at a ‘Celebrate the 2nd Amendment’ event Saturday afternoon, held at a shooting range in Johnston, Iowa,” AP’s director of media relations Paul Colford said.
“Five of the photos published by AP included images of guns seen on a wall in the background so that it appeared a pistol was pointed at Sen. Cruz’s head. The images were not intended to portray Sen. Cruz in a negative light.”
The image [pictured above] sparked outrage in conservative media.
“Imagine this scenario-and how would the world respond if the name on those photos read: Bernie Sanders? Hillary Clinton?” Breitbart News wrote. “But imagine the outcry were he a Democrat. How many think pieces about violent imagery and responsible reporting would we see? How many more if he were a woman?”
Cruz has been the victim of some other dubious media treatment over the last few months: Bloomberg’s Mark Halperin was panned for his Cruz interview, which mostly focused on the senator’s Hispanic heritage.
“I wanted to give you the opportunity to welcome your colleague Senator Sanders to the race and I’d like you to do it, if you would, en Español,” Halperin had said.