Army manipulated general's photo (Dunwoody)

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

The Associated Press on Friday suspended the use of photos provided by the Defense Department after the Army distributed a digitally altered photo of the U.S. military's first female four-star general.

The image of Army Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody is the second Army-provided photo the AP has eliminated from its service in the last two months.

The AP said that adjusting photos and other imagery, even for aesthetic reasons, damages the credibility of the information distributed by the military to news organizations and the public.

... In the original photo, the general appears to be sitting at a desk with a credenza and bookshelf behind her. Three stars on her uniform identify her as a lieutenant general, her rank before Friday's promotion.

The altered photo, distributed by the Army and run on the AP's photo wire Thursday, shows Dunwoody in fatigues in front of an American flag. Her rank, affixed to the front of a soldier's tunic, is not visible.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/11/14/national/w161758S09.DTL&tsp=1

---

Fake photo:
Original photo:

[Ian David]

1. They also added a penis. n/t

[ben_meyers]

14. Really? I'll bet her husband was surprised!

nt.

[babylonsister]

2. So the AP does have standards occasionally? Who knew. nt

[Auggie]

3. They smoothed her complexion, enhanced the eye color, and did a bad job

in the outlining.

[Fed_Up_Grammy]

4. Oh,so what! It's done all the time. Jeez !!!!

[catnhatnh]

9. So, If you deliberately publish a lie...

you are a liar, and if you accidentally publish a lie and stand by it you are tarnished. It's about honesty and defending ones reputation and has been sadly lacking for some time...

[Fed_Up_Grammy]

12. It's background for a picture---no more,no less. FDR kept

the American public in the dark about his physical condition for many years.

[catnhatnh]

18. Yes and it was wrong though arguably neccesary....

this is a deception without ANY purpose and therefore even worse. It cannot become acceptable to publish known falsehoods whether verbal or visual. Truth is a papers only currency and to debase it for any reason is wrong.

[struggle4progress]

23. Keeping Alive a Myth About FDR (LTTE WaPo 2005)

Keeping Alive a Myth About FDR
Saturday, April 23, 2005; Page A17

The myth that Franklin D. Roosevelt's partial paralysis from polio was kept secret from the public that elected him president four times will apparently never die. It has been given a new lease on life by the History Channel's documentary about FDR as well as by media coverage of the film in The Post and elsewhere.

In reality, the basic facts about his condition were known to anyone who read the press closely. For example, in the course of a long, sympathetic 1932 profile of the prospective presidential candidate, Time magazine detailed his being stricken with polio, his partial recovery and his subsequent creation of the Warm Springs Foundation. "Swimming at Warm Springs several months each year and special exercises at Albany have made it possible for the Governor to walk 100 feet or so with braces and canes," Time explained. "When standing at crowded public functions, he still clings precariously to a friend's arm." In November of the same year, Time reported, "At Worcester, Mass., Governor Roosevelt picked Catherine Murphy, 9, also a cripple from infantile paralysis, to send at his own expense to Warm Springs, Ga., for treatment." While the White House understandably did not emphasize his disability, pictures of the president showing his leg braces frequently appeared in the press ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10679-2005Apr22.html

[TheWraith]

22. I tend to agree that this is much ado about nothing.

They took an existing photo and made it more flattering in place of making the effort to produce a formal, professional file photo. So? Nobody expects file photos to document newsworthy information--they're strictly for reference purposes.

[Backwoodsrider]

5. frankly I'd prefer the woman in original photo guiding the troops

Seeing her face made me think 'barbed wire'.

[Backwoodsrider]

6. frankly I'd prefer the woman in original photo guiding the troops

Seeing her face made me think 'barbed wire'.

[Doctor Cynic]

7. So US Military Photoshop technology can't fool people?

[GP6971]

8. And the point is....

What? I really don't care.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ogneopasno]

19. Oh, come on.

[bertman]

20. Just trying to point out the absurdity of this whole "issue".

[PittPoliSci]

11. original looks way better

she looks jaundiced in the first one.

[Regret My New Name]

13. Seems like a rather non-issue, to be honest...

Although, I think the original looks better anyways. The edited one reminds me too much of those people on the internet who think they are "artist" because they can run images through photoshop filters. :P

[harmonicon]

15. strange

It seems like they were trying to make her look better, or more neutral, but the original photo is a lot better.

[LynnTheDem]

16. The US military is just practising. Soon they'll be able to photoshop back to life

all the dead troops.



Yes, TRUTH is ALWAYS important. LIES are the slippery slope.

Thank you AP.

[tclambert]

17. Hey, if I'm ever promoted to four stars, you know some 2nd lieutenant is gonna pretty up my pictures

or I'll transfer his ass to the coldest, loneliest weather station in Greenland. And no Victoria's Secret catalogs! Make me look younger! And get rid of the bags under my eyes! And put a flag behind me! You saw the movie, Patton? That's what I want.

[Bette Noir]

21. I'd dwant my real photo used,

but one taken 25 years ago.

[truthisfreedom]

24. Something else is going on here. This has nothing to do with the issue they're presenting.

It feels like a coordinated effort between the DD and AP to make an excuse for not publishing any military photos... probably because something is about to be released regarding Abu Ghraib.

[ohio2007]

25. more like ignoring a goal obtained by a woman and make it sound like the army thought she

was photo shopped for fugly.
just as many of the posters here have assumed.:eyes:

or, you could be correct as her connection to the Abu Ghraib dereliction of duty may be connected with her promotion.

Wasn't she the one in charge during the GI photo shoots ?

maybe not

[Newsjock]

26. I like it when someone is wearing more tinfoil than even me

But, dagblastit, it sounds like you might actually have a point there. Fascinating speculation! If "torture photos" are in the news soon, we'll know.

[Truth Teller]

27. That fake photo is obvously, well, fake

That's a bad job.

[petronius]

28. I don't see the problem here - it's not a news photo, it's a publicity photo

Sounds to me that the AP is engaged in some asinine posturing, perhaps playing CYA for the last 8 years of incompetence. I.e., "Sure, we swallowed everything hook, line, and sinker and failed to do any due diligence or basic investigating for the past 8 years, but now we have standards, dammit!"

Trying to build a foundation for the next 4 years of biased anit-Obama 'reporting'...