Sometimes a Cigar is a Cigar

There's been a right hoo hah over nothing regarding a story about how the PC Brigade / militant non smokers have defaced the name of Britain's greatest war leader, in their non ending mission to establish a PC sandal wearing utopia of left wing debauchery or whatever. Yes it seems that a copy of a 1948 picture of Churchill opening a military facility, has had the cigar he is smoking removed from the picture. (See Above.)

The sans cigar doctored photo has subsequently been superimposed on to a wartime image wall montage of a WW2 "Britain At War" museum in London. From the admittedly tenuous information we can get from the story, it seems the alteration was not noticed by the owners or staff at the museum (they certainly didn't doctor the photo themselves.). And it is implied that this has been the case for over 20 years. That is until a visitor by the name of David McAdam spotted it, and was only too keen to jump to lofty conclusions.

"I pointed out this crude alteration to a museum steward who said she hadn't noticed the change before, nor had anyone else pointed it out.

Viewing the now disfigured image reveals just how unhinged the vociferous anti-smoking lobby has become. So much for the notion that only communist tyrants airbrushed history."

The museum owners don't know who altered the image and why they did, and even when it was altered. That didn't stop a colleague of the Churchill Archives Centre, jumping to more conclusions either.

"'The cigar is part of what makes Churchill an iconic figure and of course it was very much part of his image as war leader - it went hand in hand with his victory salute and the uniforms he wore.

What's politically correct for 2010 was not politically correct for 1940."

To be fair I suppose he is only reacting to second hand stuff he is being asked to comment on. So it's a fair mistake. It wouldn't surprise me if some of the boneheaded sort of people who get really wound up about spurious stories like this, will openly abuse the owner of the museum for being the PC fanatic he isn't. It would be regrettable if he lost business over it. Indeed - hidden amongst all the self righteous huffing, the article in the Mail does explain that the museums owners didn't know that the picture was altered, and indeed why it was altered. But looking further into the story I discovered this interesting article on the Heresy Corner blog that possibly explains where the cigar went. It would be hugely ironic that (if the doctorer is this man) the Mails getting worked up about PC zealots airbrushing out cigars, when the airbrushing was done by a libertarian blogger pranking about, in response to what he saw as a PC zealot, in regards to a vocal complainer wanting smoking scenes edited out of Tom and Jerry cartoons!

The irony increases up a notch again with this ridiculous story. The Mail has gone and done what the mischievous libertarian blogger did in regards to the earlier "PC gone mad story"! Photoshopping various iconic images of hard men poses to take into account the sensibilities of the PC / H&S brigade. Stuff like those builders sitting on a suspended girder on a Manhattan skyscraper now wearing hard hats, and Arnie the Terminator on his motorbike now wearing a crash helmet. This at least highlights how easy it is for a doctored photo to enter the public domain, and being distributed. A plentiful; futuristic, fertile source of shit, that can be flung at the PC zealots when hard news is a bit thin on the ground.

Superb.