AP: Spanish-Language Paper Altered Photos

[Eugene]

Spanish-Language Paper Altered Photos

By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ
Associated Press Writer

July 28, 2006, 4:13 PM EDT

MIAMI -- The Miami Herald's Spanish-language sister paper acknowledged Friday
that it manipulated two photos to make it appear that two Cuban police officers
were ignoring prostitutes gesturing to a tourist.

The image, which appeared June 25 in El Nuevo Herald, combined two previously
published pictures -- a 1994 photo of the officers by El Nuevo Herald photographer
Roberto Koltun, and a 1998 picture of the women and tourist by John Moore,
then a photographer for the Associated Press.

Executive Editor Humberto Castello said the newspaper failed to explain to readers
that the picture did not depict a real event. AP guidelines prohibit altering or
manipulating the content of a photograph.

-snip-

El Nuevo Herald said it will offer a seminar to its photographers, graphic artists
and editors on ethics and design.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-el-nuevo-herald-photo,0,3763574.story

[alcibiades_mystery]

1. You need a seminar to know not to superimpose photos?

:rofl:

[Judi Lynn]

2. Fantastic news that they were caught on this!

They normally go about their misinformation business with very few people knowing about it, outside the Miami paper, El Progreso Weekly which points out the difference between what El Nuevo is telling Miami non-English reading Cubans, and what the Miami Herald is publishing, which is quite well spun for the heavily Cuban readership, as well.

It's absolutely amazing when you start finding out how much a captive audience they've got there which has to put up with atrocious mangling of real news to please the right-wing Cuban reactionary palate in Florida. The community leaders who actually know different should be soundly rebuked publicly for this deliberate duplicity.

From what various DU'ers have written over the years who have been to Cuba and who have lived in Miami, there's a much larger hooker population per capita in Miami any day of the week, no doubt about it.

[Mika]

3. Its the first time they ever faked photos/stories, I'm sure. NOT!

The Castrophobes complain that Cuba is a (gay and/or straight) sex tourism destination and decry that the Cuban law enforcement does nothing (none of which is true) - but then at the same time the Castrophobes cite Cuban anti prostitution laws as proof that the Cuban constitution enshrines (gay and/or straight) human right violations.

:crazy:

[RebelOne]

16. Having lived in Miami much of my life,

I can testify that the hooker profession is thriving there. And it is not just Hispanics. Take a drive on 79th Street. There's one on every street corner.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Here's the photo!

Clues to Deception: In the doorway, there is a sharp variation in light between the right and left sides. Note the difference in perspective between the police officers and prostitutes. The police officers cast shadows. The prostitutes don't.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Listen Up, McClatchy
The most-honored Spanish newspaper in the United States is ethically challenged
By Chuck Strouse
Article Published Jul 27, 2006

A striking, five-column color photo was splashed across the Sunday, June 25 edition of El Nuevo Herald. It showed four spandex-clad prostitutes in Cuba hailing a foreign tourist. Just a few feet away, two policemen conversed with a little girl and a woman. The headline: "Hookers: The Sad Meat of the American Dollar."

The cops obviously didn't care about the working girls — a clear sign of the hypocritically wanton ways of Fidel Castro's Cuba.

Problem is, the picture was a fake. Indeed it was just the kind of manipulated combination of two images that prompted the Los Angeles Times to fire staff photographer Brian Walski in 2003. Walski, you may recall, altered two photos of an American soldier to make them appear as one, more dramatic image. Several papers unknowingly published the combo on their front pages, and Thom McGuire, a Hartford Courant assistant managing editor, said the incident made him "sick to my stomach."

El Nuevo's sin was worse. Its image — on page 27A — appeared with the caption "The government has proven incapable of confronting the dramatic phenomenon of prostitution" and a story about a book on Cuba's working girls by author Amir Valle.
(snip/...)

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/Issues/2006-07-27/news/strouse.html

[Mika]

5. Judi - can you post the link to that photo?

If you can.

Delete the http://www part of the link so DU's software doesn't link to it, that way we can cut and paste it in our own browsers.

Thanks.

:hi:

[Judi Lynn]

7. Here it is. Hope this works out:

It's on this page. I went looking for the photo when I saw a blank space where the photo was supposed to be in the original article:

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/photoGallery/index.php?c=23130&p=1

I was hoping to find a much larger version to see the photoshopping at closer range, but this is it!

[daleo]

6. Typical of today's journalistic ethics

They need a seminar to explain that you shouldn't lie with photographs.

More likely, the seminar is to show them how not to get caught. This reminds me of the photo of Chevez, where a rose is morphed into a handgun.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Ah, yes, the well-known "guns and roses" switcheroo!

Here's the one the deviant opposition newspaper Tal Qual ran, substituting a rose Hugo Chavez held during a speech with a gun! Hey, that's freedom of expression.....



Why should anyone get so bent out of shape over a little journalistic freedom of expression?



Here's a small article:

Guns & Roses in Caracas, Chavez at gunpoint

Monday, Sep 29, 2003 Print format
Send by email


By: Lucila Gallino and Ralph Niemeyer

An episode worthy a Venezuelan soap opera, like the one that happened last week in the Venezuelan media, can explain once again the passions and the hatred that President Hugo Chávez and his government generate not only in Venezuela but also in the rest of the world. Would it be why Chavez is -for many- the Latin American “black sheep”?

Many things happen in Caracas every day. In this city where the violence is tolerated, the media are the daily protagonists of a mediatic explosion that shakes the nation.

On Friday September 26, the newspaper “Tal Cual” ("As such"), opponent of the Government, was sent to the streets with an issue that became the scandal of the week. On the cover of the paper, President Chávez is shown holding a 9mm caliber gun on the left hand. The publication of this high impact photo is the full responsibility of the Editor of the paper, who will have to appear before the Law for falsification of information.

The "little retouch" that was done to the original photo is not as simple as changing an image for another one. In this case, a gun was digitally put in place of a red rose that had been given to the President during the First Women World Forum underway in Caracas. Chavez gave a speech at the Forum in which 190 women from 27 countries participated in support of Venezuela’s revolutionary process.

The retouching of this photomontage exceeds all boundaries of respect. On the background of the scene, there was a poster with the logo of the Forum. The logo in the altered photo was erased in order to put the photo out of context.
(snip)

http://venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1025

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Your post also reminded me of a photo run in an American paper showing a group of soldiers sitting and listening to a speech which was duplicated over and over until it looked as if there had been a large crowd of soldiers sitting in the same place listening to the speech. Makes your skin crawl.

[lumpy]

9. Wasn't that when Bush was speaking

before a group of soldiers? I remember that was posted on DU. Poor job of photo cheating.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Is this the photo you're remembering?

I know I've seen this one before:


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/10/27/22442/878

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There's another one which isn't visable any longer in a quick search, which was created by a Los Angeles reporter. This one would be VERY interesting to see if only it were still available!

~~~~ link ~~~~

[daleo]

11. I hadn't seen that one

A job worthy of Winston Smith.

[Judi Lynn]

12. I think I've found the one you remember, possibly.

I'm sure this is one which was discussed at D.U.:

L.A. Times Photographer Fired Over Altered Image
By Kenny Irby

April 1 may forever haunt Colin Crawford, Los Angeles Times Director of Photography, and Brian Walski, a staff photographer covering the war in Iraq for the paper.

That was the day Walski was fired, after it was revealed that a photo he submitted on Sunday was actually a composite of two images he had captured.

The photo was shared primarily with other Tribune properties via Newscom, the company's internal picture distribution service. Both the Hartford Courant and The Chicago Tribune used the photograph prominently on Monday.

Thom McGuire, the Courant's Assistant Managing Editor for Photography & Graphics, says he is still "sick to my stomach over the whole episode," and has been since Monday night.
(snip/...)

http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=28082

Be sure to check the box on the right, for "Flash picture comparison." I'm sure you'll recognize it!

On edit: adding photo.



This is the composite photo.

[Judi Lynn]

13. Well, word is getting around about El Nuevo's crooked photo journalism

I'll bet the people who made the choice at Knight-Ridder to sell to McClatchy are damned glad to be free of this pathetic crew of right-wing idiots.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 26, 2006
El Nuevo Herald doctors photo of Cuban cops and prostitutes
Miami New Times
Editors at the McClatchy paper manipulated two images to make one photo showing police in Cuba ignoring the prostitution problem. (The caption reads: "The government has proven incapable of confronting the dramatic phenomenon of prostitution.") Chuck Strouse reports higherups at El Nuevo overrode the objections of photographer Roberto Koltun, who snapped both pictures several years ago, and ran the manipulated image. Top editors at El Nuevo Herald didn't return Strouse's calls.
(snip/)

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45&aid=105308

On edit:

El Nuevo could have saved itself the trouble and printed some shots of Miami hustlers!

[Mika]

14. At least Cuban hookers have access to free condoms..

.. and are well aware of the dangers not using them. (BTW, Cuba has the lowest HIV infection rate and AIDS rate in the Western Hemisphere.)

Not so in Miami, where some of the highest HIV infection rates in N America are.

[AlphaCentauri]

15. we all know who is running the show

:rofl: