[Infowarrior] - AP temporarily refuses DOD-issued photos

Sat Nov 15 19:51:49 UTC 2008

Army manipulated general's photo  	
Nov 14 08:18 PM US/Eastern
By RICHARD LARDNER
Associated Press Writer 	

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D94F1CIG0&show_article=1	

		WASHINGTON (AP) - The Associated Press on Friday suspended the use  
of photos provided by the Defense Department after the Army  
distributed a digitally altered photo of the U.S. military's first  
female four-star general.

The image of Army Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody is the second Army-provided  
photo the AP has eliminated from its service in the last two months.

The AP said that adjusting photos and other imagery, even for  
aesthetic reasons, damages the credibility of the information  
distributed by the military to news organizations and the public.

"For us, there's a zero-tolerance policy of adding or subtracting  
actual content from an image," said Santiago Lyon, the AP's director  
of photography.

Santiago said the AP is developing procedures to protect against  
further occurrences and, once those steps are in place, it will  
consider lifting the ban. He said the AP is also discussing the  
problem with the military.

Col. Cathy Abbott, chief of the Army's media relations division, said  
the Dunwoody photo did not violate Army policy that prohibits the  
cropping or editing of a photo to misrepresent the facts or change the  
circumstances of an event. She did not know who changed the photo or  
which Army office released it, she said.

Dunwoody was promoted to full general on Friday at a Pentagon ceremony  
attended by Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff.

In the original photo, the general appears to be sitting at a desk  
with a credenza and bookshelf behind her. Three stars on her uniform  
identify her as a lieutenant general, her rank before Friday's  
promotion.

The altered photo, distributed by the Army and run on the AP's photo  
wire Thursday, shows Dunwoody in fatigues in front of an American  
flag. Her rank, affixed to the front of a soldier's tunic, is not  
visible.

"We're not misrepresenting her," Abbott said. "The image is still  
clearly Gen. Dunwoody."

In September, the AP banned use of a photo of Army Staff Sgt. Darris  
Dawson, who was killed in Iraq. Dawson's face and shoulders appeared  
to have been digitally altered.

Abbott said Dawson's unit did not have an official photo of him and  
wanted one that could be used for a memorial service.

"That photo was released to the public strictly by accident," she  
said. "We apologized for that."

Bob Owen, deputy director of photography at the San Antonio Express- 
News, was the first to notice the changes in the Dawson and Dunwoody  
photos, finding the earlier versions on the Internet.

Owen said he views all photos supplied by the Defense Department  
skeptically.

"Photo journalists lose their jobs over this," he said.

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On the Net: U.S. Army: http://www.army.mil