Friday, October 28, 2005

Shoot To Kill

The rather infantile doctoring of a photo of Condoleezza Rice by USA Today recalls a similar incident in Australia following the Port Arthur Massacre in 1996.

A photograph of the then alleged killer, Martin Bryant, was infamously doctored by a newspaper, the eyes being outlined and pin-pointed in such a way as to make the accused look deranged.

In much the same way as USA Today claims the 'demonised' Condoleezza Rice was the clumsy result of 'sharpening the photo for clarity', the Australian media outlet involved in the Bryant photo scandal claimed it had received the image via picturegram (a kind of high resolution fax) and had had to have an artist draw back in and highlight certain features because they had become almost completely washed out in transmission.

The photo of Bryant, staring and wild-eyed, did no harm whatsoever to the general public's perception of a massive clampdown on legal gun ownership a mere 12 days after the massacre.

Oh well, at least USA Today had obtained their original photo of Rice legally.

Australian journalists broke into the accused's house to steal photographs of him, a female journalist distracting the lone policeman guarding the front of the house while a photographer went around the back and forced entry.

All this is mentioned obliquely under the heading "Media coverage' here. My sources worked with the thieves, sorry, journalists...

-- Nick

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