Independent's 'Great Depression' Photo Was From 2005 Coat Drive

The April 1 Independent story about a looming "Great Depression" in the United States was positively risible. But as Jim Geraghty at National Review Online noted yesterday, the stark-looking photo for the paper's story (at right via Getty Images) was three years old.:

Their caption: "Disadvantaged Americans queue for aid in New York."

Here's the actual caption from Getty Images:

NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 30: People wait on line to receive donated coats at the kickoff of the 17th annual New York Cares Coat Drive a the Bowery Mission November 30, 2005 in New York City. Bloomberg helped give out coats to residents of the Mission and the coat drive hopes to collect and distribute 80,000 coats to needy New Yorkers by New Years. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Wow. We're in the third year of the Great Depression, apparently.

Fox News Channel also picked up this story in the 2 p.m. EDT hour today, noting that cherrypicking a three-year old photo serves only to push a biased talking point, not to accurately portray something actually in the news on April 1, 2008.