Photos of Sarah Palin – Actually Running

By now you’re sick to death of this story, but there are angles that fascinate me, like how does a photo for the back page of Runner’s World end up on the cover of Newsweek?

Apparently Runner’s World didn’t give its permission, and claims to have had a one-year embargo on reprints. The photographer himself didn’t know it was going to be a Newsweek cover. The photographer’s agent, who was responsible for the Newsweek deal, isn’t talking, but his site has all 47 shots of Palin taken that day, including a couple of badly posed ones of her tying her shoe.

Meanwhile, now that Palin, Oprah, Runner’s World, Newsweek, the photographer and the agent have all benefited from the exposure, only one entity remains: Icebreaker, the company responsible for the apparel Palin is wearing in the photo. The company is working on a way to capitalize on all the free publicity.

And while everyone debates whether the photo is appropriate for the cover of a news magazine, I’m not sure it was appropriate for a runner’s magazine. Palin is a runner. So why didn’t the photographer hired by Runner’s World have her, uh, run? Or they could have gone with a race photo:

Or a candid shot of her out for a training run, like the one CNN used:

Or a composed shot with the Alaska background, like the Wall Street Journal used:

No cheesecake here. Just a fit, middle-aged mom out for a run. Good enough for me.