AP Ups Scrutiny of Handouts, Lifts Ban on U.S. Military Photos

Earlier this month, the Associated Press stopped distributing any photos provided by the U.S. military after the Department of Defense released a photo of a general that had been digitally altered. It was the second such photo that editors caught in two months. (You can read about it here on the NPPA web site.)

Today the AP lifted its ban after talking things over with DOD press officials. The Pentagon press secretary has issued a reminder to all military offices that altered photos are not acceptable.

Also, the AP says that going forward, two editors must closely check handout photos before the AP will use them. The two altered military handout photos that were not caught within the AP; they were pulled recently after being caught by editors at newspapers. (Specifically, one editor caught both: Bob Owen of the San Antonio Express-News, according to the NPPA.)

Here's a link to the AP report. It explains the changes this way:

"The AP has revised its internal procedures for handling handout photos from any outside source. These images must be closely examined in Photoshop, a photo editing program, by at least two editors. If there's any question about the integrity of an image, it won't be used."

Comments

[Jimme Bonde]

Come, come now. There is a greater concern here that is being entirely overlooked than that of a doctored photo. At the news picture agencies and wire services, not long ago the daily file was dominated by quality imagery. This has fallen completely by the wayside in today's digital age. With the advances in technology and a day and age where 'page hits' are more important than the content itself, quality has been supplanted by quantity.

This sequence of stories appears to be a feeble and albeit shameless attempt by the AP to cover up their inadequacies and ineptitude by their picture editor(s) more than anything else. And it's not just the AP. I'm sure many recall how Reuters was similarly burned not so long ago with images from the middle east. Believe me when I say, these are NOT isolated inceidents! Sadly, it goes way beyond them. Individual photographers and newspapers themselves have been caught with their hands in the digital cookie jars. Sad as it is, the digital manipulation game is all around us.

As noted earlier, mainstream photography, particularly news photography, is fully integrated in a digital world. The fact that the wire service (AP) got burned - yet again - by a manipulated image should be a wake up call for the roll of picture editing and quality control. In this case to blame the DoD as well as in past instance(s) is to divert attention away from the fact that someone was asleep at the switch at the wire service, pure and simple!

The role of picture editing has gained added responsibility and need, now, more than ever before. This is especially so at the wire services. In this instance, the same picture editor at the same paper spotted something that should have been checked and verified before having been pushed into cybermedia in the first place. What the hell has happened to the editor that was asleep at the switch? Where is the report on this person being FIRED, as well he or she should have been????

I hope this serves as a wake-up call. Raking the DoD over the coals here was gratuitous, shallow and smacks of telling the world you don't take responsibility for your product. For when you put your company logo on an image - handout or otherwise - and funnel it out and around the world, regardless of its producer, you are telling people this is the real deal. In other words, the wires and picture agencies simply cannot continue to shovel quantity into the pipe without the necessary and paramount quality control that their clients deserve. Today, you simply can't overstate the importance and role of the picture editor. This story is nothing more than CYA; the AP attempting to cover up the fact that their editor was totally asleep and just shoveled this out on the wire... total, utter and complete lack of picture editing. Shame on the AP !!!!!!!!