Within hours of setting off a firestorm with a provocative image of her holding up what is presented to be the decapitated head of Donald Trump, comedian Kathy Griffin took to social media to apologize and ask that the man who took the photo remove it from the internet.
Celebrity photographer Tyler Shields' work has long been known to cause a stir. He has depicted a member of the KKK being hanged by a black man, and got a rise out of the press over a shoot in which he had a blood splattered Lindsay Lohan pose with a soaking red kitchen knife. But none of his projects have ever gotten such a quick and damning response than those he released of Griffin enacting the slaughter of the President has. Neither has any stand-up routine or political statement Griffin put out up until this point.
"It is never funny to joke about killing a president," former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton tweeted in response to the image. Her sentiments were shared by the Secret Service, whose Twitter page refrained from naming names, but in clear reference to Shields and Griffin's depiction, issued a statement that read: "Threats made against @SecretService protectees receive the highest priority of all of our investigations."
"I'm a comic. I cross the line. I move the line, then I cross it. I went way too far. The image is too disturbing. I understand how it offends people. It wasn't funny. I get it," Griffin would state, in a video she later posted to Instagram. "I beg for your forgiveness. I went too far. I made a mistake and I was wrong."
Source: youtube.com
