Breitbart Used Photo Of German Soccer Star For Another Story About Migrant Gangs On Jet Skis
Breitbart owes German soccer star Lukus Podolski another apology.
Last Friday, the far-right propaganda website published a story about gang members smuggling African migrants to Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar on jet skis.
The story, which appeared the same day that Steve Bannon returned to helm Breitbart after being fired as White House Chief Strategist, featured a photo of a smiling man wearing sunglasses and a life jacket, riding on the back of a jet ski with a brown-skinned rider.
But the jet ski passenger in the photo was not a carefree immigrant being driven across the sea by an African gang member.
It was German national soccer team center Lukus Podolski taking a ride off the coast of Brazil in June 2014, two days before the commencement of the quadrennial FIFA World Cup soccer championship.
As the Washington Post reported yesterday, Breitbart apologized to Podolski for the misrepresentation, noting, “There is no evidence Mr. Podolski is either a migrant gang member, nor being human trafficked.”
Yesterday, Podolski announced that he is considering legal action against Breitbart, despite the apology.
But last week’s story about the African gang wasn’t the only time Breitbart has used the photo of Podolski to illustrate a story about criminal smuggling of “illegal aliens.”
On June 13, 2015, Breitbart published a story about Border Patrol agents in the United States tracking Mexicans on jet skis off the coast of California.
The 2015 photo featured the very same photo of Podolski, flashing a peace sign in waters off Santo Andre, Brazil.
Breitbart replaced the photo of the superstar German athlete that accompanied last week’s story with a stock photo of dark-skinned men on a boat.
As of this writing, however, the archived June 2015 story still featured the image of Podolski who, for the record, was born in Poland and emigrated to Germany in 1987, at the age of two.
