Visual Accuracy

Brenda Stepp

bs014317@ohio.edu

A lot can be said about the accuracy not only of words but also of photos and videos. With technology available today, it is quite simple for someone to add filters so they may lose a few pounds or erase a double chin. But what about using such filters to erase an historical figure?


One of the more resent images that was famously altered was taken in the Situation Room of the White House. The photo was taken of President Obama and his National Security Team during the raid on Bin Laden. Two Orthodox Jewish publications famously decided to remove the only two women in the room, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Director for Counterterrorism Audrey Tomason. The originally released photo had already been altered. The image of a classified document in front of Secretary Clinton had been digitally removed before its release. Obviously, it is shameful for any publication to take it upon themselves to alter a photograph. History needs to be recorded as it happens, not as we wish it to happen. This, however, is not a recent development.

Above is a Civil War era photograph of Lancaster, Ohio’s own William Techumsah Sherman and the men who would help him in his “March to the Sea”.  It was taken by Matthew Brady, the famous Civil War photographer.  Brady was also pretty good at adding or deleating people from photographs.  You will notice that Francis P. Blair (seated, far right) was added to the photograph.  He was not in the original (below)

With the knowledge that the photo had already been digitally altered, how do we know that a photo we see in the media is an accurate representation of the truth?  After all, seeing is believing, right?  I don’t think that we can.  We can’t even believe what is on The Weather Channel as witnessed in the video below.  A Weather Channel reporter is having difficulty standing up in hurricane force winds while two young men behind him seem to have no problems whatsoever with remaining upright.

Perhaps there are times when a bit of exaggeration is necessary.  Although not completely truthful in their representations, The Weather Channel’s reporting of hurricanes does more to help the public than to harm.  The storm was dangerous, was about to become more so, and the general public needed to either “get out of Dodge” or hunker down for some rough weather. Should it have been a little less obvious?  Probably.   Would it have been appropriate for the aforementioned “classified” paperwork to have been left in the photograph of the Situation Room?  No, I think not.  Keeping the public safe is sometimes worth a bit of untruthfulness.  Unfortunately, sometimes those decisions are made by the wrong people for the wrong reasons.