Politics

Stock Footage of Minorities in Tim Pawlenty's Presidential Announcement Video

By Chris Good

Few minorities are featured in Tim Pawlenty's presidential announcement video, and, as it turns out, most of them were taken from Getty stock footage.

Pawlenty, who served as governor of Minnesota until January, took the first step toward a 2012 presidential bid by announcing the formation of an exploratory committee Monday. He released this YouTube announcement via Facebook, telling supporters he's considering a run for president:



Alongside the many caucasian handshakes, minorities appear a total of three or four times. (Pawlenty greets one man who looks possibly Latino.)

A camera pans by a smiling Asian girl (0:45) and an African-American family standing on a front porch (1:05). As a Democratic source points out, both clips come from Getty Images:

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A third clip of an African-American hand shaking that of a white doctor (0:53) also appears to be stock, but, without specific provenance to cite, one can only speculate.

To be fair, this may not reflect anything about Pawlenty's potential appeal to minorities. Stock photos are used in promotional videos and advertisements all the time: That's why they exist.

Not three weeks ago, Newt Gingrich got razzed for using stock photos on his exploratory website, the day he announced he was thinking of running. A tumblr blog of Gingrich in front of stock photos quickly appeared. Gingrich is the only other major candidate to announce an exploratory committee for a 2012 White House bid.

Which means that exploratory-announced, major GOP White House candidates are two for two on using stock images thus far.

Chris Good is a political reporter for ABC News. He was previously an associate editor at The Atlantic and a reporter for The Hill.