On Tuesday night, Hillary Clinton made history by becoming the first woman to be nominated for the presidency by a major party. That’s a big deal, worthy of front-page cover stories with enormous, exciting typeface. Clinton was given that treatment by most every major publication, but with one small caveat: Many of them used an image of Bill Clinton instead of Hillary.
The male Clinton did speak at last night’s Democratic National Convention, listing all the reasons his wife would make an excellent president. But in using a photo of the former president instead of one of the candidate, the narrative about Hillary’s historic success is now preserved in the history books as a joint effort, or one made possible by Bill.
“Hillary didn’t speak last night,” one might argue, “so there weren’t any photos besides ones of her video-ing in from New York.” To work around that challenge, the New York Times’ front page featured an image of women in the audience holding a sign that read “Girl power.” An early edition of The Wall Street Journal used a cover image of Bill but the final edition appeared with a photo of Hillary up onscreen. Try harder next time!
