Why Did CNN Alter Lara Logan Photo?

Los Angeles Times:

CNN calls its nightly program "Anderson Cooper 360." But the view was rather less than complete when the network reported on the alleged crimes against CBS reporter Lara Logan on Wednesday night.

...What was especially noteworthy about the segment was the photo the CNN producers chose. It was of a grim-faced Logan, apparently amid a large crowd, just moments before the attack is said to have occurred...CNN, however, chose to blur the faces of the men in the background. The reason for the choice is unclear...By partly obscuring the image, CNN tampered with the journalistic record without explanation, leaving it to viewers to guess whether the network intended to protect or incriminate the figures in the background.

Read the whole story: Los Angeles Times

Comments

[lilipilicious]

04:55 PM on 02/19/2011

Why does no one stop thinking that maybe, only maybe, she is the one who behaved and conducted herself inappropriately and culturally insensitively here. I mean here is a western woman, a blonde, attractive woman going into an Arab nation - that on top of everything is under turmoil and chaos - surrounded by men that do not have the same freedoms, access and views on sexuality as men in the west - and she thinks it is ok? She didnt even wear a head scarf or anything.

When you go to another country, especially one where the cultural norms are very different from yours, you respect that. Now right or wrong is another issue. The truth is that these men are sexually deprived and held under a tight leash with respect to having their sexual needs met. So you dont walk around there like you are trotting down Sunset Blvd and as if you owned the place because you are american and thus are supposedly above it all.

I am not surprised at all that this happened. This has nothing to do with arab or not, by the way, this is a human thing. If western men had the lives arabs have, they would have done the same. She, due to ignorance and a misplaced sense of entitlement, put herself in a situation whose outcome is predictable. I am stunned people dont get it. You just dont get it. You think the world evolves around you and everyone else

[NAOMA]

02:34 PM on 02/19/2011

My Phoenix news station just announced that authorities were looking for her RAPIST. The assault had formerly been called a "sexual assault." (could have been groping). But now they have
called it rape. How can they find him in that mass of humanity over there? Or maybe there is some film footage?

[Whimsy Anderson]

07:54 PM on 02/19/2011

By giving her a very thorough physical exam when she arrived in the United States. usually the clothes of the victim are sealed and tested for DNA and a rape kit is run. There were also witnesses and some photos taken--these men are known in Egypt. If they have DNA and cooperation from the Egyption government and witnesses they can be prosecuted by Egyption law.
CNN did the right thing by blurring the photo. We should not assume that the men in the photo are the same men that assaulted her-(and by printing there photos publicly) it could put innocent people--who had nothing to do with the attack--in danger. The attackers are being vilified in Egypt. They have placed a stain on the reputation of the Egyption people and many people could take the law into their own hands. Without the fact-- without knowing who did what-- it is irresponsible to post photos of these men and allude to rape.

[xbrwn83]

06:09 PM on 02/18/2011

The fact is if they needed a picture of Lara Logan to use they could have had their choice of stock photos like they did with Gabrielle Giffords. AC360 intentionally chose this particular picture for sensationalism yet at the same time blurred faces of people no one outside egypt would recognize anyway. If 20 egyptian soldiers could see she needed help so could the possibility of any of those people blurred out if they werent the ones guilty of the attack. She was attacked in front of a lot of people not "blocks away" but within Tahrir square where the protesters checked ID and frisked people before letting in. Some serious investigation into her attackers shouldnt just be glossed over as if nothing can be proven.

[goldenj]

04:59 PM on 02/18/2011

All the excuses about blurring their faces to keep their identities obscure is ridiculous....They are in Egypt!...we don't know them. They have 80 million or so people. The US can't do anything. There are millions in Cairo. Leaders of Egypt--if they have some--are a little more worried about the country falling into total anarchy not to mention they are smart enought not to put them in prison without just cause. Worse yet, thousands who have caused violence are running around free, not to mention dangerous prisoners who escaped. Tourism has already lost billions. Notice too on the photo that the blurring also lightens their faces to look like white men, when in actuality, from the same image not blurred, they are quite dark-skinned. It's a no-brainer....THE BLURRING IS ABOUT anti-white man POLITICAL CORRECTNESS.

[INKl1ng]

10:16 AM on 02/18/2011

If your comment isn't pulled before my response posts I think I'm done with huffpo for good.

[KIVPossum]

09:09 AM on 02/18/2011

There is no certainty the men in the background are the men who made the attack. Putting their faces on TV would associate them with the crime even if they were innocent.

Leave it to hupo to find a story in this

[jkb5371]

07:46 PM on 02/18/2011

What a joke, they didn't want them to be associated with a crime? Why doesn't HuffPo do that? On their front page they have a story about soldiers opening fire on protesters, no one's face is blurred. HuffPo doesn't have the same journalistic integrity of CNN?
The men appear to Muslims, Lara Logan is a white blonde woman...CNN is chickensh**, they wouldn't want to perhaps, maybe, ya never know offend Muslim sensibilities...
Everyone is fair game....except Muslims...why is that???

[mylittlepwny]

08:49 AM on 02/18/2011

CNN blurred their faces because We do not know if they were the Men Who commited this act, so I will congratulate CNN in this case. I am more worried as to why the LA times cannot see the reasoning behind this.

[QueenNzinga]

09:10 AM on 02/18/2011

My sentiments exactly.

[Gavin Saunders]

08:26 AM on 02/18/2011

Can't you just ask them?

[INKl1ng]

08:01 AM on 02/18/2011

@JerryMerry what?!?!? Any evidence? Here's a theory: Mubarak is from Mars and intends to enslave all humans.

[INKl1ng]

07:46 AM on 02/18/2011

CNN has made plenty of mistakes. This isn't one. They obviously needed a photo to pair with this story, but showing Logan amongst several men could imply, for careless readers, that those men are somehow involved with the assault. Those people deserve some amount of protection from angry, uninformed mobs.

[Dunkleberger Karl]

08:59 AM on 02/18/2011

CNN needed to say why they edited the photo!
the photo is not their property!
Cnn needs to say why they edited the photo!
CNN is Messing up!! It Must be Friday!
Free Bud in the Lobby boy! Yeah!

[INKl1ng]

09:53 AM on 02/18/2011

Wow. Posting in bold and repeating yourself sure makes a strong point. Maybe you should stop drinking ( smoking?) those " free buds" before you post

[xbrwn83]

04:35 PM on 02/18/2011

This isnt the one and only picture of Lara Logan in egypt or otherwise to use. If they needed a picture of her to go with the story, to pair her face with her story, there's plenty to choose. After Gabrielle Giffords got shot in the head the public didnt need photos of her wrapped in bandages or lying in a hospital bed to tell the story. They still use stock photos of her when telling the story of her progress. This is no different. For CNN/AC360 to use this particular photo shows their intent to sensationalize and yet they also chose to blur out faces. Could have just used a stock photo of Logan from CBS. CNN apologists cant see this common sense.

[oldfloozie]

06:07 AM on 02/18/2011

Its Not news..its Entertainment.

[Cougar29]

03:05 AM on 02/18/2011

My church has been boycotting CNN advertisers for years now. We were right all along.

[Amalek]

05:17 AM on 02/18/2011

What on earth for? 

I could see boycotting Fox News for calling for lying and calling for violence, or against MSNBC for supporting abortion rights, but CNN, the milquetoast politically correct network?

[mylittlepwny]

08:50 AM on 02/18/2011

To belong to one section of society You have to sign the bottom of Their boycott list.

[xbrwn83]

01:33 AM on 02/18/2011

Notice Anderson Cooper didnt acknowledge this story or the credibility of his show in question?

He would rather argue over absurd twitter comments to stir emotions than find justice for Logan. If those people in the pic didnt attack her they are bystanders who did nothing. Plus plenty of egyptians have been photographed & taped. Al jazeera livestreamed young egyptians looting & vandalizing on the 1st days without signing a release form. This blurred pic is another example of how Anderson builds up the protesters as if they can do no wrong, dismissing the shady side of them that will creep out and become known over time.

Fox news shows are always called out for their lies it's become quaint but AC360 should be called out for this shady style of histrionic "journalism" Anderson Cooper passes off as "news" to keep him honest for a change. Anytime Anderson misinforms, twists facts or continently leaves out information to tell the angle of a story he wants to tell. His own blog is censored & policed by people much like the mubarak regime if you try to correct the misinformation by posting facts.

[Renshai]

12:03 PM on 02/18/2011

You are why those faces were blurred. We don't know where or when to the exact time frame in relation to the story that the photo was taken. And yet you have already decided they were involved in the attack in some way.

"If those people in the pic didnt attack her they are bystanders who did nothing."

Or this photo was taken 3 blocks over on the day before and she was headed to the van.
Or this photo was taken 3 hours later as she's on the way to the airport

[xbrwn83]

04:05 PM on 02/18/2011

People like you are the reason why rape and sexual assault victims dont come forward and attackers get off scott free. She didnt get "3 blocks away" when she was separated from her crew and got attacked. That is such a sickening excuse to protect people you instantly deem innocent when either directly or indirectly they are guilty of something. And yet you forget she was surrounded by a MOB of people, she couldnt get very far and it took a couple egyptian women and 20 soldiers to finally step in and help her. Not those people around her in that photo who are clearly not women or soldiers. A woman was attacked here. To quickly dismiss any probability at all on her attackers & witnesses to suddenly worry about anonymity and false portrayals after Anderson Cooper made enough accusations and finger pointing without facts to back it up is severely disingenuous.

[Cthulhu On Call]

12:55 AM on 02/18/2011

Probably because they didn't want people to think that just because those guys that are in the photo had something to do with what happened.

The photo and the caption might mislead people to thinking that they were the attackers. It's pointless anyway, because everyone else ran the photo without blurring the guys in the background.

[stape45]

12:52 AM on 02/18/2011

Should we pretend it was Fox and let it slide?