So the AP takes a photo of then-Senator Obama. A fellow by the name of Shepard Fairey uses the photo to create a poster that quickly becomes a famous icon of the presidential campaign.

Then the AP’s lawyers got a little jealous of all of the t-shirt revenue that Fairey was raking in and decided to get their fair share. Fairey got greedy and started lying and destroying evidence.

Mr. Fairey told the agency — and his own lawyers — that he had used a photograph from an April 27, 2006, event about Darfur at the National Press Club in Washington where Mr. Obama was seated next to the actor George Clooney. Instead, the photograph he used was from the same event, but was a solo image of Mr. Obama’s head, tilted in intense concentration.

Mr. Fairey admitted that in the initial months after the suit and countersuit were filed, he destroyed evidence and created false documents to cover up the real source. He said he had initially believed that The A.P was wrong about which photo he used, but later realized the agency was right.

“In an attempt to conceal my mistake, I submitted false images and deleted other images,” Mr. Fairey said in a statement, released on his Web site. “I sincerely apologize for my lapse in judgment, and I take full responsibility for my actions, which were mine alone.”

I’m not sure this is quite the typical way a “symbol of hope” comes about…

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