Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) represents “The Sunflower?State” and his website reflects that. However, the photos of sunflowers on his site aren’t photos of the beautiful Kansas countryside; they were taken by a Ukrainian photographer in Ukraine.
The header on every page of Pat Roberts’ website:
Roberts campaign press release:
The image as saved from the website:
The stock image from Deposit Photos:
The rest of photographer Mykola Velychko’s photos:
Velychko’s bio on stock image sites. The label on the photo of Roberts sunflower field says that it’s in Ukraine.
And here it is, “a field of sunflowers in the south of Ukraine.”
Oops! Here is another Velychko image on Roberts’ Facebook page, too.
And the Deposit Photos link with Velychko’s name on it.
And Velychko’s personal website.
Roberts’ campaign manager Corry Bliss is not amused.
?Is this a joke? It’s obviously a stock image used by our digital firm to reflect that Kansas is the Sunflower State. But given the many serious issues facing our country right now, I doubt voters care about this silly line of attack by Greg Orman and his liberal allies.?
So everyone uses stock images….right? Is this a big deal? Naw. But we still LOVE it and think it’s awesome that all-American boy Pat Roberts can’t even find a decent photo of a field of his state’s flowers. It’s been a bad week for GOP politicians and stock photos, eh? Seriously the campaign staffers need to up their game a bit.?
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Tiffany Willis is a fifth-generation Texan and the founder and editor-in-chief of Liberal America. An unapologetic member of the Christian Left, she has spent most of her career actively working with ?the least of these? and disadvantaged and oppressed populations. She’s passionate about their struggles. To stay on top of topics she discusses,?like her?Facebook page,?follow her on Twitter, or?connect with her via LinkedIn. She also has?a?grossly neglected personal blog?and a?literary quotes blog that is a labor of love. Find her somewhere and join the discussion.
h/t to BuzzFeed‘s Andrew Kaczynski, who always finds the BEST stories!
