U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel drew swift condemnation this week after he filmed a campaign ad attacking critical race theory against the backdrop of a civil rights landmark in Selma, Alabama.
The backlash also fueled false claims that the former state treasurer photo-edited his face onto the body of a Black Marine.
In the ad, Mandel invoked the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as he walked on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the site of police beatings of civil rights activists as they marched for voting rights in 1965. He argued opponents of critical race theory – an academic field incorrectly associated with diversity and inclusion initiatives – are unfairly accused of being racist.
"Martin Luther King marched right here so skin color wouldn't matter," Mandel said in the ad. "I didn't do two tours in Anbar province, fighting alongside Marines of every color, to come home and be called a racist."
The ad shows several photos of Mandel during his time in Iraq, including one of him and a group of Black Marines. In that image, Mandel's hands appear darker than the rest of his skin, prompting allegations on social media that the campaign edited his face onto a different body.
Mandel's campaign disputed the claims and provided a copy of the original photo to USA TODAY Network Ohio, which shows his hand and skin tone matching. That photo shows a physical copy of the image sitting on a table.
The agency behind the ad also said the photo is legitimate and...
A front-page article with the byline of veteran New York Times opinion writer Nicholas Kristof is the latest poisonous example of what I call the NGO “halo effect.” Headlined “The Silence That Mee...