The Newseum has archived the front pages from March 12, the day after the Madrid bombings, and they've added front pages from the day after Fallujah in their "War in Iraq" section.

>Madrid bombings front pages [Newseum]
>War in Iraq front pages [Newseum]

The feedback page of Kenneth Irby's Poynter article is still missing any response from him to the questions posed there about his seeming advocacy of the "distortion" of images. But it's only been a day and I'm sure he's a busy guy, so I'll cut him some slack. However, from that page, Spanish journalist Juan Varela points to an interesting piece he wrote on his weblog on how Spanish and foreign press handled the images of March 11. It's in Spanish, but here, courtesy of the magical Babelfish and my own woefully inadequate language skills, is a nice bit about the manipulation of the Guerrero photo.

The English press has reflected on its behavior and the conclusions are pathetic. For the deputy editor for news of The Guardian, Paul Johnson, the photograph came "just in the margins of what we could use on the front page." The margins of what the readers of the progressive British newspaper would tolerate.

Johnson defends the conversion of the red blood to gray stone because it did not eliminate any element of the photo. An intellectual arabesque in the great British tradition: to mask things without making them disappear. Victorian reflex or political correctness? It was a peculiar decision when the newspaper's own ethical code indicates that all altered photographs must be identified as such.

At the conservative Daily Telegraph they're much clearer. "It's a question of taste. ... You clean up an image if you feel it does not change the context," says its picture editor, Bob Bodman.

In tumultuous times, with obscenities and violence all around, it is peculiar the importance of a leg: only a piece of bleeding flesh. Around it was death and true pain. The mystery of who was responsible and the whole tragedy beginning for the victims and their families.

And so many people repairing one leg.

>The pain and truth of the image [Periodistas 21]

Kenny Irby's Poynter article on the Madrid photo manipulation has been posted. It's basically a roundup of how different newspapers handled this and other gruesome photos from that day. I must say I'm quite disappointed that he didn't give the ethical issues involved in digitally manipulating photographs more than just a fly-by. And in discussing options open to editors when confronted with graphic photos, he says this:

• Distortion of the picture is another choice. That is, you can subtract and/or add editorial content within the frame of the photographic composition.

I'm not sure exactly what he means by "distortion" and "subtract and/or add editorial content," but I find that a bit disturbing. Is he actually saying that Photoshopping images is a legitimate option? I hope not.

After Fark linked to my original Madrid posts, there was a lot of discussion by "normal people" (i.e. readers) in the Fark comments and other weblogs and message boards. Most of them were appalled at the manipulation and said the newspapers should have picked another photo or run the image as it was. They seemed to get that news photographs should reflect the truth. Why can't some "journalists?"

In episodes like this, the trustworthiness of documentary photojournalism is at stake, and I think the Poynter Institute needs to give that a bit more consideration.

>"Beyond Taste: Editing Truth" [Poynter Online]

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Thanks to Michael Whitley, our favorite new packrat at the LA Times, we can show that the Washington Post did indeed run the undoctored Madrid image. As their lead image.

And so did the LA Daily News.

The Belgians at Gazet Van Antwerpen, however, had a very British-like failure of nerve.

Something to remember the next time you hear somebody say that the European media don't sanitize the truth like those squeamish Americans.

Update: As I mentioned earlier, I've been waiting for the indignation over this whole sordid affair. Over at Visualeditors.com, Cavendish comes through quite well. He also mentions that Kenny Irby is working on something for Poynter Online.

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Alert reader Brian left a comment in the El Pais post below noting that the British papers "cleaned up" (read: removed) the severed limb in Pablo Torres Guerrero's photo and defended themselves later. The Guardian has the scoop (Note: The Guardian's requiring registration now). Here are the photos:

The original photo as it ran in El Pais. The bloody limb is visible in the bottom left of the photo.

The Guardian changed the limb to an unobtrusive gray.

The Telegraph removed it entirely.

The Times also removed it.

The Telegraph's picture editor, Bob Bodman, said:

"It's a question of taste. At the end of the day our readers know there has been a horrific explosion. You clean up an image if you feel it does not change the context - in this case had that object been at the side we would have cropped it. It didn't really add anything to the picture."

Even David Viggers, senior pictures editor at Reuters, which distributed the picture, doesn't seem to be too worked up about it:

"I wouldn't have removed it myself, although I can understand why some people have chosen to do so. It didn't alter the context of the image."

Well. Those Brits do have some different standards. I just can't see that happening here. At least not any newsroom I've worked in. You might find yourself all over Romenesko in the morning. I seem to remember a pretty big stink over the Post-Dispatch's disappearing Coke can and National Geographic's magical moving pyramids. It's not a long walk from there to Brian Walski.

So where's the hooplah about this on our end of the Atlantic? If these sorts of things erode the credibility of the news photograph, shouldn't we be raising a bit of a ruckus? The sheer volume of vein-popping e-mail would crash Daniel Okrent's computer if the New York Times did this. True, it is "over there," but does that really matter anymore?

By the way, for the "Are American newspapers too squeamish?" file, someone on this message board says the Washington Post ran the photo undoctored on the front page, but I can't find an image of that day's page to verify. Any Posties out there confirm that?

>Editors 'clean up' bomb photo [The Guardian]

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Here's a freaky occurrence from Newspagedesigner. The Virginian-Pilot and the Northern Virginia Daily, about 400 miles apart, came up with eerily similar Spain centerpieces on March 12.

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I spent some time yesterday collecting various Spanish front pages to post, only to find late in the evening that the fine folks at SND-E had already put me to shame. So just go there. At press time they didn't have Bilbao's Gara, but they probably will soon, as they're updating often. Spain's journalists did some fine work in the face of the horror. Go and bear witness.

>11-M [SND-E]

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It's always a challenge for the sports folks on days of tragedy. Spain has several sports dailies. Here's how three of them handled Thursday's events.

El Mundo Deportivo went with a black reverse, some news photos and a photo of the beloved hometown F.C. Barcelona team taking a moment of silence.

AS put a black band, a news photo, an F.C.B. moment-of-silence photo and the beginning of an essay on the cover.

Marca does a fine job. They changed the signature red M to black with a single tear. They added a news photo and four moment-of-silence photos and some well chosen words. The main hed: "We cried together, we will win together." The simple, poetic top decks say (pardon my rudimentary Spanish):

Today there is only a place for revulsion.
Today we must remember the victims.
Today the message is of freedom and life.
Today sport will remain in the background.

Very nice.

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Here's tomorrow's El Pais (click on the picture for a bigger view). Assuming these links don't rot too quick, you can download a PDF of the El Pais cover here, the inside 43 bombing pages here, or the whole 96 page paper here. (Note: That's a 20MB file.) There's an 8-page English edition here.

Continue reading "THE NEXT DAY"

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El Mundo has covers of some of the extra editions that Spanish newspapers have published in the wake of today's horrific attacks in Madrid. And at El Pais you can download PDF's of their extra edition. And both El Mundo and El Pais appear to have suspended their usual subscription requirements, so you can see all their coverage, including their Flash graphics.

Update: The Madrid daily ABC also published an 18-page extra, which you can download here.

>Masacre en Madrid [El Mundo]
>EDICIÓN ESPECIAL DIARIO EL PAÍS [El Pais]

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