‘Newsweek’ reacts to Palin cover outrage
Newsweek is responding to criticism over its October 13 , featuring a close-up shot of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, with a statement defending the photo choice.
The statement reads as follows: “Nigel Parry’s compelling portrait of Gov. Sarah Palin was shot and cropped so we could see clearly into her eye and be engaged by her smile. Gov. Palin and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) were photographed exclusively for Newsweek on August 29 and the portrait used on this weeks’ cover is from that session. As a news magazine, it is not our policy to cosmetically retouch the photography we publish; accordingly, we have not retouched the cover photos of Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. McCain.”
Said Fox News Channel anchor Megyn Kelly this week: “When they put you up close and personal on a magazine, even the most gorgeous supermodels in the world, they retouch you to get rid of the normal flaws that human being have. That’s what they do in the magazine business. [Newsweek] didn’t do it for Gov. Palin.”
Republican media consultant Andrea Tantaros expressed many of the same concerns on CNN and Fox News, which, it should be pointed out, was heavily criticized in July for drastically altering the photos of two New York Times staffers.
At the time, Brian Lewis, Fox News EVP of corporate communications, The New York Times that the network’s PR staff does not alter images of competitors, but had no control over stories that appeared on the network’s shows. He added that Fox News personalities going after other reporters also makes the job of the network’s PR department more difficult.
