News Org Demands Josh Hawley Stop Using Raised Fist Photo On His Campaign Merch

We recently discussed noted fascist and fist-raiser Josh Hawley and his campaign's decision to start selling campaign merchandise using a photo from a Politico photographer. As part of that post, we talked about how the Associated Press was looking into whether this constituted copyright infringement. I very much think it does not, given that the use is for political donations (speech), that it is at least mildly transformative, and there is zero harm done to the news organizations due to its use. On the other hand, I also very much expected a conflict over all of this.

And now here we are, with E&E News, which is owned by Politico, stating that the use of the image was unauthorized and demanding that Hawley stop using it.

The photo was taken by E&E News photographer Francis Chung. We did not authorize its use by the Hawley campaign for the purpose of political fundraising, which the campaign has been put on notice of by legal counsel," Politico spokesman Brad Dayspring said in an email. We eagerly await a response, but in the interim again respectfully ask that the campaign immediately cease and desist unauthorized use of the image," Dayspring said.

Now the open question is whether Politico is willing to actually move forward with a lawsuit against a sitting Senator over this. Why? Well, based on the campaign's public response, it doesn't appear that Hawley's team has any intention of ceasing and/or desisting.

But, because we live in the dumbest timeline as the kids say, those public comments from Hawley's team are also dickish in the most on-brand way and more than a little stupid.

We haven't received any correspondence from Politico or anyone else, but we are in full compliance with the law," Hawley campaign spokesman Kyle Plotkin told HuffPost. Perhaps Politico can show us the correspondence they sent to the many liberal groups who also used the photo."

You can really feel Plotkin thinking he's made an actual point here, but he hasn't. I'll just let Gizmodo's Dell Cameron field that one.

not sure that's how copyright law works kyle pic.twitter.com/EHUVPnoOcr

- dell cameron (@dellcam) March 15, 2022

Nope, it very much is not. But keep your eyes out for a future lawsuit in which there will be no good guys to root for. My favorite kind.