"US Paper 'sorry' over Bin Laden raid photo.
A US newspaper has apologised for doctoring a photograph of senior White House staff watching the Osama Bin Laden mission by editing out the women in the room, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton."
Here is the image, from the Sky News site:
In addition to Clinton, Director for Counterterrorism Audery Tomason has also been removed.
Here is the paper's explanation:
"The New York-based Yiddish newspaper Der Tzitung explained in a statement it has a long-standing editorial policy to never publish photographs of women, which it says is in keeping with the "laws of modesty" of its Orthodox Jewish readership."
The article goes on to say that this is an act of respect for women, who should be appreciated for what they do, and not what they look like. I don't wish to start a debate on feminism or religion, but it seems to me that the women in this photo are doing their jobs alongside men - it is not as if they are parading their figures or sexuality.
The doctoring of this image has significantly changed the information conveyed by the photograph. As well as her physical body, Clinton's very human reaction has also been removed. The image was apparently distributed from The Whitehouse with a caveat that it must not be doctored in any way. According to the article, the photo editor missed this instruction. Nevertheless, I find it worrying that, with or without that caveat, a newspaper sees fit to manipulate information and present it as factual in this way.
Add to that the fact that this is a very high profile news story and an historic moment in its own right, and I feel that this makes it even worse. The newspaper has apologised, but this error in judgement has already led to scrutinisation of the paper and previous stories.
In my Assignment 3 essay, I wrote that in my opinion the line between acceptable and unacceptable image manipulation is not clear. However, I have no doubt in my mind that this example falls well within the 'unacceptable' category.
So....What else is new.....The media have been lying to us for years.....AND...Years.....AND....
ReplyDeleteWith all this technology, they can alter, rearrange, pictures and photos, into any shape or form they wish.
And, not always to the good......! Sad, very sad.....!
It is an extraordinary story.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck with the assignment. Looking forward to seeing what you do. What did you do for assignment four? I am planning to use water as my linking theme. My plans have a habit of changing but I think this may come off...
Thanks Eileen. I tend not to post my assignment images on my blog, I'm not sure why! I used 'water' too - mostly seascapes, manipulated in a lot of different ways. I used motion blur to smooth the water on a couple. I also tried using the 'watercolour' filter in Photoshop, but I didn't like the result too much!
ReplyDeleteA good example of digital manipulation and how it can be abused to alter people's perceptions.
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