Economist cover brushes out others standing with Obama

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times notes Monday that the June 19 cover of The Economist showing President Barack Obama standing alone at the Gulf oil disaster had been changed.

Peters writes, “?The problem was, he was not actually alone. The photograph was just edited to make it look that way.

“The unaltered image, shot on May 28 by a Reuters photographer, Larry Downing, shows Adm. Thad W. Allen of the Coast Guard and Charlotte Randolph, a local parish president, standing alongside the president. But in the image that appeared on The Economist’s cover, Admiral Allen and Ms. Randolph had been scrubbed out, replaced by the blue water of the Gulf of Mexico.

“When it comes to its own photographers, Reuters has stringent standards regarding photo editing. ‘Reuters has a strict policy against modifying, removing, adding to or altering any of its photographs without first obtaining the permission of Reuters and, where necessary, the third parties referred to,’ Thomson Reuters said in a statement on Sunday.

“Editors from The Economist had no comment when asked on Friday about the cover image.”