An Old Trick...

Today, CNN International has an article bashing Bush about his idea to use the US military as a police force if the Asian bird flu erupts in America. As you can see from the article, and CNN Int'l's homepage, the picture they posted of Bush is less than flattering:

As is pointed out in this post, "Anatomy of a Photograph", and by the fact that Bush's "I have to use the restroom" note was photoshopped and quite plainly enhanced by Reuters, are both examples of the press manipulating photos for their own purposes.

I'm not necessarily accusing CNN of doing anything out of the ordinary. This example just reminds me of a friend who worked for Iowa State University's student newspaper, the Iowa State Daily. At the time, Iowa State's president was Martin Jischke, and he wasn't exactly liked by the student body. My friend, a photographer for the Daily, told me that all of the photographers made every attempt to use only horrible pictures of the now Purdue University president whenever they need pictures of him for the paper. This is one I particularly remember:

Yes, the quality of this picture was intentional. It makes Jischke look like a fool. Now, there were literally dozens of pictures of 'ol Martin in this parade, but the photographers chose this one for the front page because it made Jischke look the worst. This is no different than the picture of Bush by the AP on CNN's site. They had literally dozens of photos to chose from; why did they pick that one?