Veteran photog blames bloggers in retouching scandals

Steve Safran September 11th, 2006

Dick Kraus, a retired Newsday photographer, writes up a nice little lesson in photography ethics at Digital Journalist. He is, rightly, appalled by the Photoshoppers who are altering their work. But then, as Mark Hamilton points out, he goes over the edge: This current controversy regarding the doctoring of news photos is also appearing on blogs all over the internet. And the bloggers’ opinions are being quoted in the mainstream media as though there was credence in what they had to say. My God!! It’s bad enough that the public no longer has confidence in established media outlets, but to have them believing everything that some twit with a computer has to say on every issue boggles my mind. And then it gets worse. It’s sad that someone with Mr. Kraus’s obvious depth of experience does not and will not understand the change in the business around him. He had good points in the article, but now they’re lost on me. Mr. Kraus represents a weary old guard that could have helped new media but chose the path of the “Back In My Day” crowd instead.