Slate's Bizbox
press box: Media criticism.

Taking StockEvery picture tells a story, sometimes the wrong one.

By Jack Shafer
Posted Friday, Dec. 7, 2007, at 6:07 PM ET

(Continued from page 1)

That Nature Medicine's image-pickers equated neglected Ethiopian orphans with HIV-positive foster children in Harlem (some of whom were Hispanic, by the way) reveals this disquieting tendency. The Nature Medicine report is about a major media organization apologizing for distributing inferior work, about the politics of medicine, and about HIV dissenters. The image chosen conveys nothing about those complex topics. Instead, it reduces the rich topic to a shocking tableau depicting neglected black toddlers.

******

Find a photo that better illustrates Nature Medicine's piece and send a link of it to . (E-mail may be quoted by name in "The Fray," Slate's readers' forum, in a future article, or elsewhere unless the writer stipulates otherwise. Permanent disclosure: Slate is owned by the Washington Post Co.)

VIEW AS SINGLE PAGE
Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss this in The FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAIL
Share on FacebookPost to MySpace!Share with MixxDigg ThisShare with RedditShare with del.icio.usShare with FurlShare with Ma.gnolia.comShare with SphereShare with Stumble Upon
Jack Shafer is Slate's editor at large.
Photograph of orphans in Ethiopia by Klaas Lingbeek-van Kranen © 2007 Nature publishing group.
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES
Washington Post
The Washington Post
OPINIONS
Over the Line
Harold Ford Jr. | I know what it's like to be smeared by your opponent.
: The Positive in Negative Ads
PLUS » Milbank: The President's Lullaby