Photoshoppery

Men's Fitness magazine seems to have altered an image of tennis player Andy Roddick that appears on the cover of the current issue. Several celebrity news sites picked up the story, which Roddick then mocked on his own blog, according to New York Times reporter Adam Newman. Roddick said the magazine increased the size of his biceps for the photo, an allegation the publisher refused to talk about with the Times.

On the blog for The Slot, a site for copy editors, Bill Walsh said the forgery, if it was a forgery, was understandable because of the deadline pressure magazine producers can be put under. In a post dated May 30, he writes, "I mean, if you need to get next month's issue out now, you do what you have to do."

Others have been less forgiving. Roy Peter Clark, president of the Poyter Institute told the Times: “Magazines that are careful about photo manipulation inside the magazine lower their standards when it comes to the cover. It’s as if the standards of accuracy and truthful representation don’t exist when it comes to the cover, and that seems very wrong to me.”

EDIT: Wonders of wonders, Bill Walsh left a comment on this post indicating that he was writing sarcastically... It goes to show two things: a) it's hard to gauge sarcasm when you don't know anything about the speaker or writer (Sorry, Bill) and b) it's hard to gauge sarcasm in print (or onscreen) no matter how good of writer you are. So take this into advisement when you read this post.

I suppose it turns out that I agree with Walsh then, because I too think it's a little unscrupulous.

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