Down in Flames

April 15, 2007

I’d really like to move on to other topics. The last thing that this blog needs to become is the Allan Detrich zone. But today the Toledo Blade published the results of its investigation into the work of its former photographer (Detrich) and found some astonishing results.

In his article, “Newspaper photos must tell the truth,” Vice President Executive Editor Ron Royhab says that, “since January dozens of digitally altered photographs of his were published either in the newspaper or on our Web site.” Damn, folks. Dozens since January. Royhab continues:

“The changes Mr. Detrich made included erasing people, tree limbs, utility poles, electrical wires, electrical outlets, and other background elements from photographs. In other cases, he added elements such as tree branches and shrubbery.

Mr. Detrich also submitted two sports photographs in which items were inserted. In one he added a hockey puck and in the other he added a basketball, each hanging in mid-air. Neither was published.”

These are huge violations of the ethics of photojournalism. We’re not supposed to be the Weekly World News, running photos of Bat Boy (sighted in the New York subway!) or giant grasshoppers invading Iowa. We are photojournalists, whose reputations as honest reporters are vital to our careers, to our readers and to humanity.

And yet there are people out there who wonder whether or not such manipulations would justify the firing of a photojournalist. Let me assure you, they are. No question about it.

A photojournalist’s role is to tell the truth, to let the content of his/her photographs stand as nonfiction, as historical documents. And if someone is screwing around with the credibility of their outlet, they need to go. It’s no different than a writer trying to pass fiction for fact.

The very idea of pasting a basketball or hockey puck into a news photograph is laughable. If you are a photojournalist who is tempted to break the rules like this, please leave the business immediately. You’re not going to get a better job by pasting a hockey puck or some shrubbery into a photograph. You’re going to get fired and never find another job in this business. Your name will be spoken with contempt in every photojournalism course throughout the country. Some nice shrubbery in the background of a photograph is hardly worth the shame.

An important point that I hope readers notice out of this whole scandal is the way responsible media outlets react to situations such as these. When this photographer went out and broke the rules, the reaction of The Blade was to conduct an investigation and report its findings very publicly. They didn’t hide the error. That’s to be commended, even though we expect nothing less. The credibility and trustworthiness of any newspaper is of such importance that nothing but the complete truth is acceptable.

The main lesson of the Detrich incident: Save the shrubbery for the gardeners of the world.

This post first appeared here.

Posted by Trent Nelson | Filed Under On Assignment, Trent 

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Comments

One Comment to “Down in Flames”

  1. Chris on April 16th, 2007 10:05 pm

    Well, at least this guy knew how to use photoshop unlike the Reuters guy………

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