By Robert MacMillan
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Monday, June 6, 2005 10:50 AM

What's the secretary of American University's College Democrats chapter doing in a campaign photo for New Jersey gubernatorial candidate and conservative Republican Bret Schundler?

Providing the textbook case for why it's dangerous to digitally alter photographs, that's what.

Laura Reznick, 21, is an ardent Democrat. Search for the American University student's name on Google and you find out her instant messaging address is "democrattotheend." Her recommended reading list on Amazon.com includes Al Franken's "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them," "Bushwhacked" by Molly Ivins and "Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth." She wrote a campaign song to the tune of " Pink Houses" by John Cougar Mellencamp.

So it seemed rather strange when her mug showed up in a crowd screaming its support for Schundler, the former mayor of Jersey City and one of seven men vying for the Republican nomination to run against Democratic candidate Sen. Jon Corzine. Schundler, who once worked on one of Gary Hart's presidential campaigns, is now a proud member of the GOP revolution. His campaign Web site touts praise from conservatives such as President George W. Bush and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who called him "the most exciting Republican in the country."

New Jersey politics being what they are, it wouldn't be surprising if the Reznick photo mishap were a secret tactic by one of his rivals to try to derail his campaign just before Tuesday's GOP primary. No such luck; it's a case of human error. Schundler in fact was standing in front of a photo taken of supporters of Howard Dean during his 2004 presidential bid.

The Bergen Record, one of the state's most widely read papers, plastered the story and the photographs all over its front page Friday. In its report, the Record quoted Schundler spokesman Bill Pascoe as saying that the photo was assembled by Big Fish, a Washington, D.C.,-based marketing and advertising firm that did similar work for Dean's 2004 presidential bid.

"The campaign was aware that Schundler's image was clipped and superimposed on a political rally photo, but they did not know it was taken at a Dean event, he said," the Record reported. Pascoe also told the paper that "It was a minor irritation for about 10 minutes."

Here's Pascoe trying to play down the error in a statement on the PoliticsNJ.com Web site: "As anyone who visits the front page of our website can see, Bret Schundler has no difficulty generating crowds of supporters wherever he goes. The amazing thing -- and, in fact, the really newsworthy thing -- is that Democrats are pushing this 'story' as hard as they are."

Big Fish chief Tom Frank told the Record that his firm apologized for the error, which he said was committed by a junior staffer who superimposed Reznick's baseball cap showing support for Howard Dean with one supporting Schundler. He did the same to a Dean for President campaign poster.

Schundler's two top foes -- former West Windsor, N.J., mayor Doug Forrester (R) and Corzine -- haven't made any hay of the incident on their Web sites. Instead, the Democratic National Committee stepped in as political committees often do when we reporters need some catty comments: "Josh Earnest, a DNC spokesman, said the incident was a telling example of the state of New Jersey's Republican party. 'They say a picture is worth a thousand words,' Earnest said. 'But this one speaks volumes that New Jersey Republicans like Bret Schundler have to steal photos of Democrats to try to convince voters that people are excited about Republican campaigns.'"

Reznick also landed a few punches when the Record interviewed her: "'I think it's pathetic that he couldn't get a group of his own enthusiastic young people. ... There are plenty of people my age who are, sadly enough, Republican.'"

The incident played out in the blogosphere this past weekend, with plenty of Democrat supporters picking up on it. It was broken on PoliticsNJ.com, described by multiple news sources as a Web site for Garden State political junkies. The site still has the story running on its homepage (and a much larger side-by-side presentation of the photos). PoliticsNJ.com site updated the story after a photographer who claimed to have shot the Dean photo complained that Big Fish violated his copyright on the image.

Big Fish's Frank declined to comment on the copyright violation charge. He said his company took the photo off the site, apologized and will continue to work with the Schundler campaign through Tuesday's primary.

It's unclear whether the doctored photo will come back to haunt Schundler with any ferocity, and if he loses the take-no-prisoners GOP primary race, he won't have to worry about it at all. But 10-minute errors like these are the ones that tend to develop a long shelf life thanks to bloggers and the Internet, and Schundler could find to his dismay that this is the goof that keeps on giving.

On a sidenote: Schundler seems to be having all sorts of trouble with his outside help. In the Times story, Schundler defended a recent mailing he sent out criticizing Forrester's property tax proposal that included the line: "Forrester could have used his wealth to do good instead of evil."

Here's the Times reporting on the fallout this caused at a candidate's debate on Sunday: "Mr. Schundler backed off, saying that he had wanted to revise the line to reflect his belief that Mr. Forrester should be acting more constructively, and not destructively, but that the person who printed the mailer had not followed his instructions. John J. Murphy, a Morris County freeholder, responded with disbelief. 'Blame it on the printer?' he asked. 'Are you blaming it on the printer?' Mr. Schundler replied: 'It was a printing error.' Then, trying to move on, he asked: 'Why aren't we talking about property taxes? Homeland security? Why aren't we talking about homeland security?'"

Because it's not as fun, that's why.

Who knew? North Koreans in 2003 and 2004 were allowed to use cell phones, the Christian Science Monitor reported deep down in an article about signs of change in the reclusive and notoriously repressive communist dictatorship. In a section of the article about an increase in private-car ownership in the Hermit Kingdom, the reporter, who was traveling incognito in Pyongyang, reported this: "[North Koreans] do talk with nostalgia of the brief period in 2003 and 2004 when cellphones were allowed. Without explanation, the government last year forbade their use, and a Japanese friend in Pyongyang says service hasn't resumed. 'We really loved carrying the mobile phones around,' said a young, state- certified tour guide."

The story noted the cell phone episode as part of a halting series of steps toward encouraging some, well, capitalist practices: "Around the city, older women sell chewing gum, chocolate, and balloons made in China. Ice cream vendors sell dollops of frozen product in bright foam packaging. Grilled sweet potato and tea are found in small booths." It also provided this footnote that proves that North Koreans can emulate some of our cell phone customer service representatives: "The shop clerks, in behavior reminiscent of China 20 years ago, seem uninterested in actually serving customers."

... Put it on the Internet. The New York Times reported that the WB Network's failed show " Pepsi Smash" will get a second shot at success on Yahoo's Web site. The program attracted 1.3 million visitors in eight episodes last year, the Times reported. That's a pretty sorry showing for TV, but the numbers game works differently online. More from the Times: "But that still leaves the question of whether a television program that struggled to find an audience will perform any better online. 'If all they're doing is taking the TV show and maybe cutting it up in different ways, but using the same logo and the same theme songs, that doesn't make sense to me,' said Todd Chanko, an analyst at Jupiter Research."

Chanko has a good point. Trash on TV is trash online, but at least on the Internet the landfill is bottomless.

Almost a quarter of all nursery school-aged children have spent time online, according to a report released last week by the Education Department. Here's more on that report from the Associated Press: "The numbers underscore a trend in which the largest group of new users of the Internet are kids 2 to 5. At school and home, children are viewing Web sites with interactive stories and animated lessons that teach letters, numbers and rhymes."

Not only that, two-thirds of nursery school children and 80 percent of kindergartners have used computers for one thing or another, according to the report. "Educators say such access needs scrutiny. Beyond blocking inappropriate content, schools must be certain the lessons they choose are based on research and geared to the developmental stage of the children, experts say," the AP reported. That means no eBay until they learn how to process a credit card.

United Airlines's employee pension plan is in tatters and questions continue to loom about whether the company will remain airborne, but it knows that it can handle in-flight Internet access. More from the Wall Street Journal : "Under the proposal, high-speed Wi-Fi connections would start becoming available on United planes next year, allowing travelers with Wi-Fi-equipped laptop computers to access the Internet from cruising altitude." The Journal said a number of hurdles remain, but if the plan were approved, it would be the first American carrier to join the WiFi ranks. Those now include Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines.

In Friday's column about RSS, I noted that people have to pay to use the Opera browser. Shame on me, as I knew better. You can use Opera for free -- you just have to put up with some advertising. If you pay, the ads go away. Thank you all for your Elektra-fying notes on this.

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