Images of Kerry at the First Debate

The three links below will take you to pages showing John Kerry removing something from his pocket at the first Presidential Debate on September 30, 2004. There was a brief flurry of interest in this because it was at first unclear exactly what he was placing in front of him on the lectern. As a result of this intense public uproar, Fox News eventually produced a high-resolution image showing that the object Kerry retrieved was a pen. While this was indeed in violation of the debate rules, the infraction was minor and as a result interest in the event has since waned.

I'm leaving these photos online as a permanent record of this short-lived controversy:


The first round of low-resolution images taken from a streaming RealPlayer rebroadcast of the debate.

The second round of medium-resolution images taken from a slightly clearer QuickTime video of the debate.

The third round of higher-resolution images taken from an even better TiVo digital TV recording of the debate.