Sen. Tom Daschle's Left-Handed Flag Salute
Photo circulating via email purports to show Senator Tom Daschle reciting the Pledge of Allegiance with the wrong hand over his heart
Description: Email hoax
Circulating since: Sep. 2002
Status: Fake (doctored photo) (see details below)
Example #1:
Email contributed by B. Sirmon, Oct. 2, 2002:
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Example #2:
Email contributed by D. Morris, March 24, 2003:
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Analysis: As far-fetched as this is on the face of it — any American citizen of Tom Daschle's age has been so thoroughly conditioned from grade school on to salute the flag by putting his right hand over his heart that unthinkingly doing the opposite would be practically impossible — the photo seems to prove that the senator did just that.
A closer look reveals otherwise.
Note first that Daschle doesn't appear to be wearing a wedding band, yet in every other photograph I was able to find in which his left hand is visible, he is wearing one.
Note secondly that in the above image the right side of Daschle's jacket is buttoned over the left, which isn't how men's suit jackets are constructed. Traditionally, the left side always overlaps the right (e.g., see Trent Lott, pictured to Daschle's left), therefore it would appear Daschle's jacket was tailored backwards.
What we're looking at, in point of fact, is a Photoshop prank in which Daschle's torso has been cut out, inverted and pasted back into the picture such that he seems to saluting the flag with the wrong hand. So far as I know, no such incident took place in the real world.
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Last updated: 03/24/03
