14 DAY TRIAL // The New York Daily News is now being accused of violating a basic journalistic principle by doctoring a photo they ran on their latest cover, taken in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings.
Charles Apple of ACES (American Copy Editors Society) was the first to note a difference between the cover photo of the NY Daily News (above) and a similar photo circulating online.
The woman in the back, seen in a pool of blood while receiving assistance from a man, had actually suffered an injury on her leg, near the ankle – all traces of which the NY Daily News removed.
“Looks to me like somebody did a little doctoring of that photo to remove a bit of gore. If you can’t stomach the gore, don’t run the photo. Period,” Apple writes.
According to the ethics code by the National Press Photographers Association, that’s exactly what the publication should have done: not run the photo if they considered it too graphic, but under no circumstance retouch it to remove the injury.
“Editing should maintain the integrity of the photographic images’ content and context. Do not manipulate images ... in any way that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects,” the NPPA says.