Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/04/03
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Martin - If, as you suggest, the photographer had been 'screwing around,' and tired and emotionally wiped out he had accidentally sent the image to the paper, he would have deserved a reprimand, not firing. I'm sorry, but in this case the responsibility is indeed the photographer's, and not the paper's: the paper should be able to depend upon the integrity of its staff members, and shouldn't have to blow images up to the size of the World Trade Towers to see if the photographer is screwing around. B. D. - -----Original Message----- From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of Martin Howard Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 1:07 PM To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us Subject: Re: [Leica] fired for photoshopping Tina Manley wrote: > Here is Walski's apology and the reaction from the Times: > > http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=28082 Again, this raises some interesting questions. What if Walski had claimed that the photo was never meant to be sent off to the paper? What if he'd just been playing around with it for private purposes, and then sent a bunch of pictures from the wrong folder? Perhaps some were obviously manipulated (Santa Claus riding across the sky in the background, the Easter Bunny brandishing an M16) while others were less so? Would the responsibility lie with the photographer, the picture editor, or the person who wrote the obtuse interface to the software program used to upload the images? Taking a systems view, it's clear that the *paper* (LA Times) screwed this one up. After having read this article, it's much less clear that the sole responsibility lies with the photographer. The "bad apple" theory is an easy one to grasp and provides the comforting illusion that the problem has been dealt with swiftly and efficiently. A systems approach would consider the systemic vunerabilities and address those. I'm not so sure any longer that firing the photographer was the right thing to do. M. - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html