Bloggers help persuade USA Today to change online photo

Posted by John Burke on October 28, 2005 at 4:32 PM

After receiving a number of comments from bloggers, USA Today decided to edit a photo it had placed on its website. The image of United States Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, which the bloggers deemed to make her look demonic, was not published in the paper's print version.

The image, posted on October 19, was not changed until the 26th.

USA Today said it was an "honest mistake" and that no one is being reprimanded. They placed a correction above the article it accompanied which said:

"The photo of Condoleezza Rice that originally accompanied this story was altered in a manner that did not meet USA TODAY's editorial standards," the note concedes. "The photo has been replaced by a properly adjusted copy. Photos published online are routinely cropped for size and adjusted for brightness and sharpness to optimize their appearance. In this case, after sharpening the photo for clarity, the editor brightened a portion of Rice's face, giving her eyes an unnatural appearance. This resulted in a distortion of the original not in keeping with our editorial standards."

Source: Editor and Publisher, NewsDesigner

Posted in :