Publications alter Va. Tech victim photo

Fresh off our discussion of ethics, Bob Carey points out a story by News Photographer magazine about the alteration of a photo of Kevin Sterne that was sent out by the Associated Press following the Va. Tech shooting. Readers of this blog know that Sterne was the chief engineer of independent student radio station WUVT-FM, and he is recovering from his injuries.

Among the publications which altered the photograph: The New York Post, People, and The Sun (UK). Apparently, the photo editors at those publications feared that Sterne’s genitals were displayed in the photo (the questionnable object was the tourniquet that saved his life). I find it particularly galling that the Sun, known for its Page 3 girls, and the Post, known for gruesome headlines and tabloid stories, were so concerned for their readers’ sensibilities that they materially altered the image to remove a crucial piece of the puzzle.

The slight blurring of the image and the extreme magnification may have helped editors at the New York Post, The Sun in London, and People magazine come to believe that they were seeing parts of the victim’s genitals. So they had the image doctored. Where before there was white or bloody tan content, now only green grass can be seen. The copy of the image they doctored was the one distributed – untouched – by AP.

The Sun in London ran the photograph as their entire front page. People magazine ran the picture twice: once small, on the cover as part of a three-picture combo, and then larger on the inside on page 61.

Chris Dougherty, the director of photography for People magazine, has not returned calls from News Photographer magazine requesting comment. But Col Allan, the executive editor of the New York Post, told The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, “We decided to make a very minor alteration to the photograph of Kevin Sterne being carried out of Norris Hall to protect the wounded student’s dignity but in no way change the news impact of the picture.”

I find that excuse sorely lacking, and agree with John Long of the NPPA:

“The need to be honest with the readers must always trump the needs of being tasteful or being sensitive to personal privacy,” John Long said today. Long is chair of NPPA’s Ethics & Standards Committee and for years has been the voice of the organization on photojournalism ethics.

“Being sensitive to the possible embarrassment of the young victim and digitally removing what might have been seen as his genitals was a noble gesture. However, in so doing People (and the New York Post, and The Sun, and other news organizations who did likewise) created a visual lie. The photograph was no longer an accurate depiction of what the photographer saw and photographed. It was a minor lie to erase that small section of the photograph, but it was a lie nonetheless and all lies damage our credibility.”

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