ESPN Magazine: How dare you?
I came across a commentary article, “What if Michael Vick were white?” today on ESPN.com, and when my browser finally loaded the page I was immediately appalled. Is there really a photoshopped image of Michael Vick – an outstanding black quarterback in the NFL – with white skin consuming my iPhone screen, or did I have one too many drinks Thursday night?
At this point, I didn’t even bother to read the article beneath the photo. I just knew I wanted to write about what I had stumbled upon – while I was supposed to be paying attention to the professor lecturing in front of me.
I definitely remember reviewing this thing in J-school classes called “ethics,” and I’m sure the same standards apply to journalists of all forms, whether one operates in front of a computer or in front of a camera – or behind a camera in this case. The fact that the art director of ESPN Magazine let an artist produce this ridiculous image is beyond me.
The writer, Touré, could have made his argument about how Vick’s circumstances and upbringing would have totally been different were he born to white parents without the eyesore – which fails to complement the layout anyway. The National Press Photographers Association is pissed right now, I’m calling it.
The NPPA’s code of ethics explicitly mentions that the editing of a photo should maintain the integrity of the image’s content and context. There is no white look-alike of Michael Vick, so the integrity of this particular photo was lost simultaneously with the artist’s mind.
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