That Ohio protest photo looked like a zombie movie. Zombie movie directors think so, too.

By Maura Judkis
April 17, 2020 at 11:18 a.m. EDT

The insatiable flesh-hunger of zombies wasn’t exactly on photographer Joshua A. Bickel’s mind when he was covering an anti-social-distancing protest at the statehouse in Columbus, Ohio, on Monday. But it was all that was on the, well, braaaaaains of people who saw Bickel’s work on social media, where the photo went viral for its parallels to classic zombie films.

The Columbus Dispatch photographer’s image is frightening and compelling. Approximately 100 protesters who were urging Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to end the state’s stay-at-home order and reopen businesses pressed up against the glass doors to the statehouse, chanting and banging windows.

One wears a Guy Fawkes mask. Two men wear Trump-branded baseball caps. Two women, the closest to the windows, shape their mouths into the same elongated howl as Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.” American flags obscure some of the protesters in the back.

“I thought this was a screencap from a zombie movie,” tweeted one woman.

“Some strong ‘Shaun of the Dead’ energy in this photo from the protests in Ohio,” tweeted another man.

It looked awfully familiar to Michael Satrazemis, the director of photography for “The Walking Dead” and director of “Fear the Walking Dead,” two shows that seem a little scarier these days, since they’re about a zombie apocalypse that begins with an uncontrollable pathogen.

-snip-

Emails cast further doubt on Pompeo's claim NPR reporter lied to him

• Mike Pompeo’s claimed Mary Louise Kelly lied before interview
• Opinion: Kelly’s Pompeo interview was like satire. If only

Oliver Laughland
@oliverlaughland
Mon 27 Jan 2020 13.57 GMT
Last modified on Mon 27 Jan 2020 13.59 GMT

Newly released emails between the office of Mike Pompeo and NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly cast further doubt on the secretary of state’s extraordinary claim that the journalist lied to him before a contentious interview.

Pompeo, who reportedly subjected Kelly to an expletive-ridden rant in his private living room after an interview during which he was asked about his role in the Ukraine scandal, issued a statement in which he accused the reporter of violating “the basic rules of journalism and decency”.

Kelly maintained that her meeting with Pompeo after the recorded interview was not agreed to be off the record.

NPR has stood by its reporter and emails quoted by the Washington Post show Kelly clearly expressing that Ukraine would be discussed.

-snip-