The useful Spike Report from the USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review points us to the public relations nightmare surrounding a news photo of NY governor Christie Todd Whitman frisking a black suspect with glee during a 1996 ride-along with state police in Camden. The New York Times editorialized about her gaffe last week:

The man she frisked had apparently already been

searched by the troopers for weapons and drugs and then

handed over to the governor. The man had not been accused

of any crime.

… the fact remains that the posed look of the photograph

and Mrs. Whitman’s smiling expression add up to the

appearance of a gratuitous insult. The controversy over the

photo may also help explain why Mrs. Whitman has had so

much trouble putting the political problem of racial profiling

by New Jersey state troopers behind her.