🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1991May1.172913.5077@noao.edu> lytle@noao.edu (Dyer Lytle  CCS) writes:
>In article <TONYB.91Apr30132158@titania.juliet.ll.mit.edu> tonyb@titania.juliet.ll.mit.edu ( Tony Berke) writes:
>
>[examples of photographic manipulation by Time magazine and others deleted]
> 
>>  Perhaps I'm being a weenie, but I think photojournalists are making a
>>  serious mistake by allowing their images to be manipulated in this
>>  way.  [ Stuff deleted]
>>  I think anything
>>  that blurs the distinction between true photojournalism and the
>>  National Enquirer's "Saddam Hussein Wears Women's Clothing!"-type
>>  pasteups is a crime, and a disservice to straight photographers.
>
>I disagree.  I think the purpose of a photojournalistic photograph,
>like any other photograph, is to communicate with the person who
>looks at the photograph.  Often, as you say, the manipulated photo
>has more impact, the viewer is not distracted by bad composition
>and can give all of his or her attention to the main theme of the
>photo.  

When does it stop being "journalism" and start being "fiction"?

If you start manipulating the image extensively, adding/deleting elements
such as people, changing background, etc., aren't you committing the photo-
graphic equivalent of misquoting or quoting out of context? A journalist
and a novelist BOTH attempt to communicate something, but a journalist
has to stay within certain well-defined boundaries. In theory, there's
a difference between reportage and editorials - that's why there's
an "op-ed" page. IMHO, this sort of stuff crosses the line. It may be
"more effective", but it isn't accurate reportage - it's an editorial, or,
in the worst cases, an outright fabrication. This kind of stuff reeks
of _1984_ or the crude manipulations of the controlled media in Stalinist
Russia. If you airbrush Trotsky out of the picture, then he never existed,
right? If you add Stalin next to a smiling Lenin, then good ol' Joe must be
the chosen successor, right? Or, to choose another example, if you have
pictures of a bunch of corpses in Polish uniforms inside of Germany it must
be time to invade Poland. Maybe the American media would never resort to
that sort of thing ("Remember the Maine"?), but is it worth the risk?
The techniques are BETTER now, so we have to be MORE careful.

-Steve