Selwyn Duke
People Mag scrubs pornographic image to hide hypocrisy
FacebookTwitter
By Selwyn Duke
January 6, 2018

Like most media reporting on the story, People magazine presented disgraced teacher Mateo Rueda in a flattering light. He was recently fired from Lincoln Elementary School in Hyrum, Utah, for showing young children nude "artwork." But he's actually, we're to believe, an intrepid martyr persecuted by prudish, uncultured rubes who can't distinguish between porn and fine art. And to prove its point, People printed a couple of the pictures shown to the fifth and sixth-graders, one of which was a full-frontal female nude titled "Iris Tree."

Only, People obscured the woman's nipples and nether region.

Apparently adult readers shouldn't see what the children saw.

Now the magazine is trying to obscure the truth. After I and others called it out on Twitter – I wrote, "If the 'artwork' Iris Tree really is appropriate for 10-year-olds, why are you blurring out part of the picture in your article?" – the image completely disappeared from the piece.

Thanks to Internet archiving and the computer function "Print Screen," however, the evidence remains. The article originally appeared as shown here (thank you, Wayback Machine).

And here is the deforested version, with "Iris Tree" sent to the e-sawmill.

Here are the tweets that started it all:



https://twitter.com/SelwynDuke/status/949027175902130176



https://twitter.com/Irishimay/status/949091485944709120

Unsurprisingly, People also blurred the truth behind the story (which I reported, conducting interviews with local parents), but didn't scrub from its article Rueda's posturing, moral preening and demeaning of his adopted community. Its writer, Cathy Free, quoted Rueda as saying, "[E]ven though I was overqualified, I took the [teaching] position with an open heart to make a difference in a predominantly-Mormon community where there isn't much culture. I hate that this controversy happened, but I stand for art, altruism and enlightenment, and I'll never back down from that."

Rueda, a native of Colombia, also said, "There are a lot of skeletons in the closet of the repressed culture here...and there is very little freedom of expression," reports Free. Rueda had earlier characterized his fellow Cache Valley residents as "cultural dead-ends" and members of a "narrow-minded community."

What Free didn't report is that, according to the parents I interviewed, Rueda forced the children to view the nudes and belittled students who complained, telling them they had to "grow up." (A local source tells me he is not getting his job back.)

Of course, the article by People's Free is now free of the Tree, but observers note the hypocrisy. As the aforementioned Twitter respondent also opined:



https://twitter.com/Irishimay/status/949095426715566080

It's interesting that People didn't demonstrate its own "enlightenment" and react to the initial criticism by uncovering "Iris Tree" for all to see, but instead decided it didn't want to be mistaken for Hustler. The only question now is whether, using descriptions Rueda and his defenders have generously applied to opponents, the people at People are best characterized as narrow-minded, repressed prudes, puritans, Nazi-like censors or cultural dead-ends. Because the magazine knows something: Certain images are too indecent for it to publish.

But are just fine for 10-year-olds.

Contact Selwyn Duke, follow him on Twitter or log on to SelwynDuke.com

© Selwyn Duke

 

The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)

 

Stephen Stone
HAPPY EASTER: A message to all who love our country and want to help save it

Stephen Stone
The most egregious lies Evan McMullin and the media have told about Sen. Mike Lee

Siena Hoefling
Protect the Children: Update with VIDEO

Stephen Stone
FLASHBACK to 2020: Dems' fake claim that Trump and Utah congressional hopeful Burgess Owens want 'renewed nuclear testing' blows up when examined

Cliff Kincaid
A CIA plot to kill Trump?

Linda Goudsmit
CHAPTER 40: The Art of Using Technologies to Alter Human Cognition

Linda Kimball
Prayer against hatred (cold hearts; lack of love; death wishing)

Michael Bresciani
‘That’s misinformation’ – The Left’s standby excuse for everything devious, dishonest, and demonic

Cliff Kincaid
Maryland sheriff warns of terror cells in America

Stone Washington
Book review: The innovative efficiency and competitive dynamism of biotechnology

Jerry Newcombe
Reading the Bible and human flourishing

Linda Goudsmit
CHAPTER 39: Cognitive Warfare and the Battle for Your Brain

Joan Swirsky
Heads up, liberal Jews––Don’t be Jews with trembling knees

Frank Louis
No pain, no gain: At least Mike Pence isn’t in the copilot seat moving forward

Robert Meyer
The real reason the elites loathe Trump

Paul Cameron
What can experts cure or prevent?
  More columns

Cartoons


Click for full cartoon
More cartoons

Columnists

Matt C. Abbott
Chris Adamo
Russ J. Alan
Bonnie Alba
Chuck Baldwin
Kevin J. Banet
J. Matt Barber
Fr. Tom Bartolomeo
. . .
[See more]

Sister sites