(Credit: PIxabay)
We have noticed that the most common type of errors filling up corrections columns relate to the basics — name spellings, numbers, and so on. iMediaEthics noted earlier this year that another type of common mistake is a photo mix-up, when a photograph is miscaptioned or someone is incorrectly identified.
In addition to the below mix-ups, it’s important to note there were also ethical lapses of judgement in selecting photos in 2018. For example, Bay Area Fox-affiliate KTVU apologized this summer for broadcasting a photo of Nia Wilson, a black 18-year-old who was fatally stabbed by a white man in a random act of violence, appearing to hold a gun. The National Association of Black Journalists, Bay Area Black Journalists Association and Maynard Institute called the photo harmful, explaining it could be used to “dismiss her humanity and silence those who view her death as a racially-motivated attack,” as well as to “reinforce unconscious bias.”
Also this summer, Getty Images apologized for publishing a photo gallery of the “sexist fans” at the 2018 World Cup.
Below, check out the 8 most noteworthy photo flops.
8. In February, InfoWars used a photo of the wrong person identified as the Parkland, Florida school shooter; the man wrongly identified filed a lawsuit against the website.
7. In a September photo from the Emmy Awards ceremony, the New York Times mis-identified actress Angela Bassett as former Trump administration member Omarosa Manigault Newman.
6. The wire service Agence France Presse mixed up Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s wife Priscilla Chan and Zuckerberg’s executive assistant Andrea Besmehn in a photo. The AFP told iMediaEthics “it was an honest case of mistaken identity.”
5. Getty Images confused Olympics skater Marai Nagasu and actress Kelly Marie Tran in March images from the Academy Awards ceremony.
4. The New York Times misidentified Japanese figure skaters Miu Suzaki and Ryuichi Kihara as Chinese skaters Yu Xiaoyu and Zhang Hao in February.
3. Australian website NowToLove used a photo of a random woman with a story about a woman who claimed her Tinder date “ruptured her bowel during sex.” The woman who was wrongly identified as the injured dater sued over that mistake.
2. Fox News erred in August when it used a picture of Patti LaBelle in a news report on the death of Aretha Franklin.
- Fox & Friends used a picture of Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Cal) in an October online news report about a Utah student’s murder. The error made it appear as though Harris was the suspect in the killing.
