Just For Fun

New York Times Liken House of Representatives To Screaming 'Metalheads' In Web Gaffe

Band Photo: Slayer (?)

The New York Times website Friday published an article by staff writers Jeff Zeley and Michael Luo about the recent rebuke that the House of Representatives sent to the White House condemning President Bush’s escalation plan.

The only problem was, the photograph that the Times website published prominently above the article was not of Congressmen debating Iraq– but instead of a group of grungy-looking heavy metal fans screaming at a ‘Slayer’ concert in the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan.

The photograph of the unruly concert-goers graced the Times’ website under the serious headline “A Divided House Denounces Plan for More Troops.”

The Times’ article, which was published at 10:04PM Eastern time and will appear in Saturday’s paper, reported that the debate in the House of Representatives “illustrated how the partisan divide over the war has deepened.” Perhaps so, but a quick check of C-SPAN assures The Daily Background that the US House of Representatives has not, in fact, devolved into a pack of bearded, long-haired, screaming ‘Slayer’ fans.

The photograph of the screaming heavy metal fans, taken by New York Times photographer Michael Falco on Thursday, was originally was meant to grace a music review which will also appear in the Saturday Times. (The Times had a mixed review of Slayer, calling it “completely unreasonable music” but also “impressive.”)

You can see a full-size screen shot of the Times' website here.

Read the full article at The Daily Background.