It's being reported that the current issue of Newsweek has a faux picture of Martha Stewart on its cover. Its her head pasted on to someone else's body. "Janice E. Castro, a director at Northwestern's school of journalism, said the fact that the image did not look completely artificial and could be mistaken for the real thing was a problem." Newsweek actually admits that the picture is fake inside the magazine, so I don't think this is really that big a deal. Plus, nowadays I think it would be more surprising if a star on the cover of a magazine weren't photoshopped in some way. Anyway, the most outrageous instance of a celebrity's face combined with someone else's body on a magazine cover remains the August 26, 1989 cover of TV Guide sporting the Oprah/Ann-Margret Frankenstein creation.
Comments
"Newsweek actually admits that the picture is fake inside the magazine, so I don't think this is really that big a deal. Plus, nowadays I think it would be more surprising if a star on the cover of a magazine weren't photoshopped in some way."
That's probably true, Alex, but don't you think that Newsweek (owned by the Washington Post, by the way) should be held to a higher journalistic standard than, say, Entertainment Weekly?
I mean, who gives a damn, really, if Ashton Kutcher's head is put on Spiderman's body or something, but shouldn't a NEWS magazine report the truth as accurately as they can?
In this particular case (which, for the record, I do not think is the worst example of this kind of thing that could exist), since the body in the picture isn't actually Martha Stewart's, what is the point of the picture at all (other than to fill up the cover, that is)?
When information in a "news" story (including photos) isn't trustworthy, then the "news" has crossed the line over into infotainment.
At the very least, shouldn't there be a disclaimer that says "Photo illustration" or something similar on the front cover, next to the "photo?" Burying it inside is kind of a cop-out.
Remember when the Chinese press used to run "photos" of Mao "swimming" in the Yangtze River, when in reality he had one foot on death's door and the other on a banana peel?
How soon can we expect Fox News to fake footage of George Bush gorilla pressing a Chevy over his head to "prove" how manly he is or walking on water to demonstrate his Godliness? Remember that there was a court ruling that said that news organizations have no obligation to tell the truth, after all.
I wasn't paying much attention to the report, I heard it in passing.