The Power and Ethics of Images Story aired: Friday, April 04, 2003
Most of us must see the war in Iraq through the eyes of the men and women photographing it.
So a question, then: are we getting a true picture.
Monday, the Los Angeles Times put a large photo on page one of a U.S. soldier, his arm raised and shoulder-slung rifle leveled toward a large crowd. A man with a baby in the foreground of the picture seemingly cowered, as if imploring the soldier for something. It's a tense, poignant moment. And it never happened.
The photographer who took the picture digitally altered it, by combining parts of images from a series of photos he'd taken of the scene. He portrayed the soldier when his arm was at its most dramatic tilt, he added a few people to the crowd, and he moved the cowering man with the child into the picture's foreground. The photographer was fired.
This week on our editorial roundtable: the power and ethics of images.
Guests:
Nolan Finley, editorial page editor of the Detroit News
Kenny Irby, group leader of visual journalism at the Poynter Institute
