Clinton camp playing race card...again?

[RunInRed 16,488]

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/03/04/qu...darkened-obama/

A controversial new Hillary Clinton attack ad is causing an Internet stir among critics who claim it deliberately darkens Barack Obama’s skin color.

A posting on the liberal site Dailykos.com shows side-by-side screen grabs of Barack Obama taken during a debate with Clinton in Cleveland last week. The screen grab used in the Clinton ad shows a clearly darker-skinned Obama, prompting some to wonder if it was done to highlight his race.

One posting on the site charged that while darkening footage may be considered standard practice for political ads trying to “cast the target as sinister,” it is “not an acceptable excuse.”

“Even if you accept that as normal practice, it’s still a dirty one, and it takes on a more charged meaning when you’re using it to attack someone in your own party who’s already fighting against a lot of racism in the false Muslim smears,” the posting said. “This is, at best, the worst of politics as usual.”

A representative from the Clinton campaign could not be immediately reached for comment.

Some bloggers immediately compared the case to the infamous 1994 Time magazine cover of O.J. Simpson following his arrest on murder charges. In that case, Time photo editors deliberately darkened a mug shot of Simpson, giving him a much more menacing appearance.

There are a number of commonly used techniques that allow photo and video editors to darken or lighten images. The lighting and tonality can be changed for effect, to highlight some parts of the image or for a variety of other reasons.

The Clinton ad, released Monday in Texas, alleged that Obama was “too busy” running for president to hold any hearings as chairman of an oversight committee for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.