French newspaper Le Figaro gets caught altering photo… and doesn’t sound all that sorry
[Update on Nov 22]
L’Express’ editor-in-chief Eric Mettout explains on his blog how and why his paper published the scoop on Le Figaro altering the minister’s photo. (French version at the link, excerpt translated by yours truly below. Molière reference impossible to translate.)
“It’s true it’s not North Kivu, this story. But it’s information, not as harmless as it looks, which says a lot about the collusion of media and [political] power — worse, on the conditioning of certain newspapers or journalists who now self-censor even before the Commander intervenes. It threatens us, too. The day when, God forbid, we slip up, to be called back to our senses this way will be painful but salutary.”
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Here’s one for the ethics textbooks that motivates me to revive this otherwise forgotten blog. Look at those two photos:
The top one is the Wednesday Nov 19 front page of Le Figaro, one of France’s top daily newspapers. The bottom one is the original photo taken by François Bouchon for Le Figaro. Notice the gorgeous ring on the finger of our justice minister, Rachida Dati? (by Chaumet, white gold and diamonds, price tag: 15,600 euros, or about $19,500 in today’s super high dollar.) Notice how it’s disappeared on the front page?
Worse than the act of altering a news image (huge no-no, if you were wondering), is the totally unapologetic stance of the Figaro photo editor when interviewed by L’Express, a competing newspaper, which revealed the photo was doctored.
“We went to press under a tight deadline. We’re taking responsibility [for this]. We didn’t want that ring to be the object of a polemic, when the real topic is the judges’ petition. Rachida Dati has nothing to do with this.”
[For context, Le Figaro is right-leaning, as is the government, and people could have assumed the minister requested the ring be removed from the photo. Also, Dati isn't very popular with France's law professionals and they recently let it be known. And generally, French people don't like to see a 20k piece of jewelry on their government officials in the middle of the worst crisis since the Great Depression.]
I’m appalled. If you don’t want the ring to be so apparent, choose one of the other gazillion photos on file of this highly mediatic, government official. (Believe me, I too care about the judges’ petition; half my family is in the legal professions.) Being on deadline might be an excuse for not taking the time to tone a photo; I really don’t see how it’s one for going the extra mile and altering a photo. And most of all, nothing —NOTHING— is an excuse for misleading readers.
I really don’t care what circumstances this was done under, because I can’t think of a single one that would make it ok. At this point, were I a Figaro reader, all I’d want is an apology. And I have yet to find one on Le Figaro’s Web site.
PS: Now the photo is all everyone’s talking about, and not the judges’ petition.
Day of Change: Faces of America Abroad
Obama supporters gathered in Phnom Penh to watch the presidential election and, later, celebrate. Even far away from the US, the emotion was palpable. I got to taking portraits of those people on the day they’ve been waiting for, some for years. (And then I couldn’t edit it down.)
Democrats Abroad watch party at the FCC, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
She was moved by John McCain's concession speech
This one just for fun: mother and son reaction to McCain winning Georgia.
A day with Vann Molyvann
Vann Molyvann (Pardon the poor photo, I was too busy taking notes.)
There are days — many if you’re lucky — when being a journalist is more than a job, more than the only thing you can picture yourself doing: it’s a privilege. Sunday was a day like that.
I spent a good chunk of the day discovering parts of Phnom Penh I had not yet seen — and another, the Foreign Language Institute, where I was just the day before without fully appreciating it — with Vann Molyvann, the leader of an architecture movement in the 1950s and 1960s that truly built modern Cambodia under the direction of now-retired King Norodom Sihanouk.
As far as tour guides go, he’s definitely as good as it gets. I always find fascinating to meet people who have seen moments in history I have only read about in textbooks. Maybe one day, I’ll be an old woman who can say she’s seen 9/11, Bill Clinton and Vann Molyvann. In the meantime, I just feel privileged talking to them and brushing past history.
For the full story, pick up today’s Cambodia Daily.
This is why I haven’t been posting
A fisherman's boat at Koh Tonsay, an island on the Gulf of Thailand across from Kep, Cambodia, where I was two weeks ago. (© me)
Among other things: a bit of blogging fatigue frankly, we all go through it. And not much Internet connection. But a lot of exciting developments are happening, which I will write about soon.
Phnom Penh readers, look for me at BarCamp Phnom Penh, Sept 20 at the Cambodia-Japan Cooperation Center.
Hello, I’m Isabelle and I’m a plagiarist
Thanks to Poynter, I found out about Jody Rosen’s discovery that her article (and many others’) had been grossly plagiarized by a Texas alt weekly. Articles under the Mark Williams byline in the Montgomery County Bulletin turned out to be mere collages of several other articles (not his work) in other publications. Rosen’s expose is quite edifying.
But there’s more revelation at the bottom of Rosen’s column (also pointed out by Poynter and Jeff Jarvis):
But perhaps the Bulletin is merely on-trend—or even ahead of its time. The Drudge Report, the Huffington Post, and Real Clear Politics have made names and money by sifting through RSS feeds; Tina Brown and Barry Diller are preparing the launch of their own news aggregator. Mike Ladyman and company may simply be bringing guerilla-style 21st-century content aggregation to 20th-century print media: publishing the Napster of newspapers.
Wow. Frankly, as a blogger I’m offended that the editorial work of linking and aggregating (and, by the way, sending traffic your way Jody) is compared to the gross practice of slapping one’s name on somebody else’s work and passing it as one’s own. Ouch. I expected this from The Associated Press, not from Slate.
That’s just one paragraph too many (that’s already angered at least one blogger) in an otherwise edifying exposé, which I will link to (er, plagiarize) here again. Just ‘coz.
Gorillaz signs innovative title sequence for BBC Sports
You all know the BBC is currently my favorite thing in media. I love the innovative approach they take (case in point: myCBBC, a social network for kids, and Big Cats Live, a live multimedia project involving webcams in a Kenyan national park), while still remaining outstanding at traditional media. Bonus points for their stunning documentaries.
This time, BBC Sports has teamed up with Gorillaz—the not-really-a-band band headed by a guy from Blur and an animator— to create a title sequence and original score to the station’s Olympics coverage. It’s innovative, it’s beautiful, and it’s witty. It even makes me want to watch the Olympics. I will leave it to your interpretation to decide who the monsters are.
See it here. (I’m cursing the Guardian for not making their —rare— videos embeddable.)
Isabelle Roughol
Reader comments on nytimes.com? Ever?
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I’m going to pick on the New York Times again. I just read an article on the impact of Karadzic’s arrest on the credibility of war crime tribunals. Interesting stuff. I did, however, find an error in the story. Nothing too dramatic really: it says the International Crimininal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia was created in 1983: in fact, it was in 1993. That’s not my problem; typos happen, and it doesn’t take away from the understanding of the story.
My problem is, there’s not one way on the page to notify the paper of the error. No comment option (seriously?), no way to email the writer or editor, not even an apparent link to a contact page. (My bad, it’s in 6-point font at the bottom if you scroll down all the way.) I don’t wanna write a gotcha comment; I just want to let a colleague know about something I noticed, so his error doesn’t stay up there for someone meaner to notice. That’s what you do; otherwise, it’s like letting someone walk around all day with a piece of lettuce between their teeth. You just don’t do that. So instead of sending a simple note to the reporter, I must resort to a blog post and hope it will register on their radar. (This shall be tagged appropriately.)
In addition to losing the precious insight of feedbacks, not making reader comments easy doesn’t make a paper look good. The Times doesn’t need another reason for someone to call them arrogant or disconnected.
Written by Isabelle Roughol
Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at 8:50
Posted in Media business, Newspapers, Web 2.0
Tagged with comment, david rohde, error, karadzic, New York Times