For those of you who missed it, there is a neat story running around about George Lepp, a Conservative candidate in the upcoming Ontario provincial election. It seems that pictures of his private bits spent 20 minutes posted on Yfrog, an online social media site, with a link on Twitter. Yes, this is one of those news stories that make you scratch your head. But, as the details come out, more than normal head scratching appears to be needed.
I know, all of you are asking about where the pictures came from or, maybe, why he posted them. Remember that posting the picture to Yfrog and then linking it to Twitter isn’t something one would normally do by accident. You see, according to his campaign spokesman, the picture was unintentionally taken when his Blackberry in was “in camera mode in his front pocket.” Apparently, the next step in this sad tale is that his Blackberry was stolen when he was jostled by protesters and apparently posted by whoever stole it. Notice that there is no dispute on the ownership of the picture’s contents.
OK. The Toronto Sun reported “The pictures — too graphic to reproduce in the newspaper — are of a man naked from the waist down, showing a close up of his penis and his crossed legs.”
So, explain to me the following. First, seeing your crossed legs, not counting anything else, in a picture taken from as close as the contents of your pocket makes me wonder what sort of lens is in a Blackberry camera. I haven’t seen the picture (nor do I want to…) so I can’t really determine if the picture is taken from as close a source as is suggested. Secondly, how much of your skin can you see from inside your pocket? A friend on Twitter said he tried to take pictures of his junk from his pocket with his iPhone but had no success. Obviously, Blackberries are way better than iPhones. I mean, picture the ad: Need to take pictures of your penis from your pocket? There’s an app for that!
So if you think I believe the explanation, you’re a bit off target. I’m a bit unsure how it got posted to Twitter, but I really wonder why someone runs around with pictures of his own bits on his cell phone camera… and, who believes you should vote for him….
Additional Note:
It seems someone has decided that the story was a bit weak so the new version seems, according to CBC, that the ownership of the bits in question is now a mystery. Mr. Lepp’s spokesman is saying that no one knows the source of the picture or how they were posted. The best part of this… same spokesman, different story. Don’t you love politics?
Doug Rutherford 