Reuters Cheap Shot

It can be reasonably argued that whatever the President of the United States does is fair game. However, Reuters publishing President Bush's bathroom note though smacks of a deliberate effort to ridicule, demean and belittle the President.

"I think I need to take a bathroom break. Is this possible?" was the message that the President apparently wrote to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice during a session of the UN General Assembly. Not really anything newsworthy aside from the fact that even POTUS needs to go to the bathroom.

Reuters specifically enhanced the handwriting part of the photo for publication but failed to make that clear. A photograph expert analyzes the photo here.

Reuters explains away the note thus:

Wilking [the photographer] shot about 200 images and sent two memory cards to the press room at the U.N., where Hershorn [Reuters Picture Editor] was working. Hershorn looked at the images on a computer and initially decided not to send any of them.

But a few hours later, he started to wonder about a note that Bush was seen writing in three of the pictures. Out of curiosity, he zoomed in to see if he could read it.

Once he saw what it said, Hershorn decided the note was interesting and worth publishing. The white parts of the picture were overexposed, so a Reuters processor used Photoshop to burn down the note. This is a standard practice for news photos, Hershorn says, and the picture was not manipulated in any other way.

Really though, I think for the MSM, if you can embarrass George Bush, there are no rules.

HT: LGF