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The problem of race and the media – Part 22 min read

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My last post addressed the media bascially ignoring horrible racist statements by a black professor (Michelle Malkin has links to the video).

I failed to mention the only time the MSM seems to enjoy showing a minority in a bad light – when they are a conservative.

Look at the recent dust-up over a photo of Condoleezza Rice that appear on USA Today online. In this case, the bad light was Photoshop induced.

Clearly the photo was altered and more than what USA Today has said:

Editor’s note: The photo of Condoleezza Rice that originally accompanied this story was altered in a manner that did not meet USA TODAY’s editorial standards. The photo has been replaced by a properly adjusted copy. Photos published online are routinely cropped for size and adjusted for brightness and sharpness to optimize their appearance. In this case, after sharpening the photo for clarity, the editor brightened a portion of Rice’s face, giving her eyes an unnatural appearance. This resulted in a distortion of the original not in keeping with our editorial standards.

If you look at the original "evil Condi" it is obvious the photo editors did way more than simply "sharpening the photo for clarity." The eyes weren’t just brightened they were altered in Photoshop.

Some editor thought they could post this photo online with the bad Photoshop eyes and get a few laughs at the next liberal media cocktail party, but he forgot that the same people that used Microsoft Word to take down Dan Rather know how to use Photoshop too.

UPDATE – Josha at The Conjecturer has more.