It is one thing to redo photos to add clarity or as an artistic exercise when that is the context. But to Photoshop photos to attack someone and not be forthcoming that one has in fact altered the photos is reprehensible. They also gave the guy with the Jewish sounding name an enlarged nose, which feels possibly anti-Semitic to me.
Fox News Airs Revised Photos of 'NYT' Staffers -- Sifton Calls It 'Disgusting'
By E&P Staff
Published: July 02, 2008 2:48 PM ET updated 4:05 PMNEW YORK The Fox News channel has gained wide attention today in the blogosphere for airing photos of two New York Times staffers that appear to have been doctored to portray the Timesmen in an unflattering light.
The photos depict New York Times reporter Jacques Steinberg with yellowed teeth, "his nose and chin widened, and his ears made to protrude further," according to a statement today by Media Matters for America. The other image, of Times television editor Steven Reddicliffe, with similar yellow teeth, as well as "dark circles ... under his eyes, and his hairline has been moved back," according to the Media Matters statement.
The photos appear to have been flattened or extended using photoshop tools.
On Wednesday morning's edition of Fox & Friends, co-hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade aired the photos while discussing a piece in the June 28 edition of the New York Times. The piece pointed out what the newspaper called "ominous trends" in Fox News' ratings.
Neither Steinberg nor Reddicliffe were reachable for comment Wednesday. But Times Culture Editor Sam Sifton called the Fox photo work "disgusting," and the criticism of the paper's reporting "a specious and meritless claim."
"It wasn't a hit piece," Sifton told E&P. "It was straight news. This was a hit piece by Fox News. It is beneath comment." Asked if the paper planned to respond to Fox's actions, he said no: "It is fighting with a pig, everyone gets dirty and the pig likes it."
Read the full article here.
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