It often happens that a photographer will snap a picture of a subject standing in front of a backdrop that makes the subject look bad. At my highschool a student photographer caught the unpopular yearbook advisor standing in front of a chalkboard with the word "assignment" written upon it. His head blocked out the last seven letters so that the picture said "ass" immediately next to his face. The gormless teacher didn't catch the juxtaposition and the picture ran in the yearbook, to widespread student glee.
Here (link no longer works) is a great modern example of this phenomenon. The AP photographer caught Pres. Bush and Pope Benedict XVI standing in front of the flags of Indiana and Mississippi. Unfortunately, the only part of the Mississippi flag showing contains the Confederate Battle Flag. [The complete Mississippi flag has the Confederate flag as an inset, in the same way that the U.S. flag contains a field of 50 stars as an inset.]
I daresay the Pope would have preferred not to be depicted with this controversial symbol.
