“Fox News published digitally altered and misleading photos on stories about Seattle’s Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) in what photojournalism experts called a clear violation of ethical standards for news organizations,” writes Jim Brunner of the Seattle Times. Fox literally put someone in a photograph who was not really at the scene. Obviously that’s bad and unprofessional. But what struck me about this lede, aside from its important news, was Brunner’s presumption that he couldn’t just come out and state the obvious fact that running manipulated images is unethical. He had to couch the statement as sourced to “photojournalism experts.” That’s the sort of thing that strikes me as faux-objectivity.
Tags: media mistakes, objectivity