Associated Press gets a taste of their own medicine

Brian Ledbetter from Snapped Shot emailed me this morning feeling a little giddy...and with good reason. Seems the Associated (with Terrorists) Press (and other media outlets) may have themselves in a little hot water for...ahem...appropriating some photos of Ashley "Kristen" Dupre' without consent:

LEGAL SMACKDOWN PENDING—Holy cow! If I had a "Drudge Siren," I'd be activating it right about now. Click on over here to see the counsel for Ms. Dupré openly threatening the entire media!

Somehow, I think the AP's legal department is going to have a very interesting morning tomorrow.

Photo of Ashley Dupre' that I swiped from the Associated Press who... uh..."appropriated" it from her Myspace site

According to the AP though, it was perfectly acceptable to steal use these photos:

Associated Press director of photography Santiago Lyon says AP consulted with its legal department before deciding to use the photos.

"Given the news value of the photographs, we decided that these were images that the public needed to see," Lyon says.

Ms. Dupre's lawyer has a different take, however:

"In view of what happened, we feel constrained to put the media on notice that as counsel for Ms. Dupre' we will take all steps that we deem necessary or appropriate to protect Ms. Dupre from any unwarranted exploitation of her name, picture, voice or likeness for purposes of profit."

Ah. And there's the rub. See...I really don't have a problem with the AP lifting the photos from Ashley's MySpace site. I've done that myself. My feeling about "private" photos and images is this...if you don't want them showing up elsewhere...don't put them on the internet! Ashley could have used a privacy setting on MySpace that would have kept her photos from being lifted.

But this whole thing is about the money. The AP and other media outlets "appropriated" the images for the express purpose of profiting from them. Ashley Dupre is threatening legal action not because the poor girl is feeling so exploited. She loves being exploited...as long as you pay her at least $4,300 an hour for doing so.

The Associated Press argues that it was acceptable to use the photos from the MySpace site because Ms. Dupre was newsworthy. As public servants they determined that we had to see these photos and they were obligated to bring them to light.

Bullcrap.

When Snapped Shot exposes the AP's fraud and bias in "photojournalism", there is no profit motive. Brian Ledbetter is not looking to profit from his work (if he is, he's doing a really crappy job of it). So for the AP to use such a heavy-handed approach by sending their legal goons to indimidate him ...well, that's just douchebag hypocrisy.

Here's hoping the AP ends up paying the prostitute just like Eliot Spitzer...

Fauxtography flashback...why sites like Snapped Shot, Little Green Footballs and The Jawa Report are so important:

(I've been looking for an excuse to post that)