Just an update on the Condi Rice photo post that I put up this morning showing photos from Yahoo Espana and USA Today’s online edition of the same photo of Condi Rice, but with the USA Today version of the photo looking somewhat doctored. USA Today’s VP/Editor-in-Chief Kinsey Wilson left this response to my post:

I’d like to explain how that happened. USATODAY.com, like other news organizations, often adjusts photos for sharpness and brightness to optimize their appearance when published online. In this case, a USATODAY.com editor sharpened the photo and then brightened a portion of Rice’s face. Those changes had the effect of distorting the photo and failed to meet our editorial standards for accuracy and integrity. The photo has been replaced with a properly adjusted copy and an editor’s note has been published here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-10-19-rice-congress_x.htm. The photo did not appear in the USA TODAY newspaper.

The editors of USATODAY.com will make every effort to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again.

Kinsey Wilson
VP/Editor-in-Chief
USATODAY.com

I certainly appreciate the fact that Kinsey took to the opportunity to respond personally to my post and I when I do get these kinds of responses from members of the media, I try always to give them equal time by reposting their message.

At the same time, I want to offer up my amateur perspective on this issue. While I’m certainly not a full-time graphic artist, I’ve been using tools like Photoshop and Fireworks for seven or eight years now, and I’ve done a fair amount of photo editing and retouching for websites and family photos. When I pulled up each photo, blew them up to about 800% and then layered the pictures vertically on my screen, it looked quite a bit like the eyes had been doctored a bit.

Here is a screen shot of what I just described:

FYI: The USA Today photo, which they resized and then reportedly “sharpened,” is on top and what I believe to be the original photo, found on Yahoo Espana, is on the bottom.

What do you think? I want to give USA Today the benefit of the doubt here, but, it looks to me that, at the very least, there was some sloppy work done. Was this deliberate and malicious? Probably not.

As I said, I want to give USA Today the benefit of the doubt and appreciate Kinsey’s very courteous response to my less-than-generous post. Take a look, dear readers, and tell me what you think.

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

*****Yes, I changed the title so as not to “demonize” USA Today*****

Sloppy work or a literal “demon-eye-zation” of a conservative by a mainstream media company? Take a look at these Condi photos:

Here is the photo of Rice that USA Today posted:

See the eyes? For those of you who, like me, are Stargate SG-1 fans, no Condi is NOT a Goa’uld!

Here is the original photo, which blogger found on Yahoo Espana:

Note to readers; this is not at all unusual for this newspaper. And it’s not even that great a job! Very unprofessional. I could do better in five minutes than this hack job of an edit. Shame on them!

Hat tip to Michelle Malkin.

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com