Selfies With President Obama Could Become A Thing Of The Past

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Thanks a lot, David Ortiz. After it was revealed that the selfie taken by the Red Sox slugger with our commander in chief was actually a publicity stunt cooked up by Samsung, the White House is considering banning all DIY photo ops with the president.

"As the rule, the White House objects to attempts to use the president's likeness for commercial purposes… We object in this case," White House press secretary Jay Carney said last week. Had the President been made aware of Ortiz's intentions, perhaps he would have agreed to take part in the stunt knowingly. But, Ortiz's actions were surprisingly underhanded, and the White House is understandably miffed.

"Maybe this will be the end of all selfies," senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer told Face the Nation recently. Pfeiffer's threat was obviously said with tongue planted firmly in cheek, but he did confirm that the White House has reached out to Samsung about its concerns. "We’ve left that conversation between the lawyers," Pfeiffer said.

Neither Samsung nor Ortiz have commented on the growing controversy, but they're eventually going to have to apologize for ruining our chances of Instagramming our very own presidential selfie. That reminds us: Does anybody want a bus ticket to D.C.? We don't need ours anymore.

Update: As we noted earlier, the talk of banning selfies at the White House was likely in jest, and this afternoon, White House press secretary Jay Carney confirmed our suspicion. "There's no discussion of a ban," he told reporters, adding that senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer meant that "humorously."

(The Verge)



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