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thedrifter
03-29-05, 09:55 AM
Sent to me by Mark (Fontman)


Harper's Magazine misuses Marine's photograph
Jake Stump
Daily Mail Staff
Tuesday March 29, 2005

Pvt. Britian Kinder has not gone absent without leave.

But anyone glancing at the cover of the March issue of Harper's Magazine would think otherwise.

Kinder, 19, of Pinch, is pictured on the cover with six other Marines standing in their T-shirts, shorts and socks above a headline reading, "AWOL in America: When Desertion is the Only Option."

The magazine, which does not identify the soldiers in the photo, also digitally altered Kinder to make him appear blurry, like a ghostly figure vanishing.

Mickey Kinder found out about his son's cover shot last week after a reporter for the St. Petersburg Times called relatives. Two Marines in the picture are from St. Petersburg, Fla., and the reporter tracked the Kinders through them.

"I looked up the magazine online and brought up the cover," said Mickey Kinder. "That sure looked like my son."

After a week of discussions between family members and the magazine, Harper's admitted Monday that it made a mistake. Founded in 1850, it is the nation's oldest continuously published monthly magazine, according to its Web site. Circulation is more than 210,000.

"We're going to print a clarification in our next issue," said Giulia Melucci, vice president and spokeswoman at Harper's, which is headquartered in New York. "We feel it needs to be clarified that these are respectable soldiers defending our country honorably. We regret any confusion it may have caused."

The retraction may not be good enough. Mickey Kinder said his son might pursue legal action.

"I figure it will be back in the magazine where no one will see it," said Mickey Kinder. "It should be on the front cover saying, 'Hey, we messed up.'"

A media expert said Harper's should have used sound judgment when designing the cover.

"Using a stock image to depict people as guilty of a crime seems fairly irresponsible, especially when the people are clearly not models," said Ralph Hanson, associate professor of journalism at West Virginia University.

"Portraying honorable soldiers as deserters is clearly inappropriate. And I don't see any way Harper's could claim that they weren't portraying the young Marines as deserters. A cover is more than just art. I think that someone had a great idea for a cover illustration and forgot that he or she was dealing with images of real people."

Hanson compared it to a case involving an underage model in 2000. Jamie Messenger, then a 14-year-old model from Florida, posed for a series of photographs for "Young and Modern" magazine. Her photos were used to illustrate a letter to the teen magazine talking about having sex with several guys. Messenger said the image portrayed her in a false light and sued.

The photo for the Harper's cover was taken last June at Parris Island by Getty Images, a photography agency that sold the picture to the magazine.

Parris Island has an open policy for photographers wanting to take pictures of recruit training.

But Mickey Kinder said his son did not give personal consent and that his reputation could take a blow.

"He's quite upset, angry," he said of his son, a Herbert Hoover High School graduate stationed in Pensacola, Fla. "He's a smart boy, a good Christian boy proud to be a Marine. It doesn't say his name specifically in it, but by glancing at it, you'd think he'd gone AWOL. I worry someone would see him out in public and go, 'Look, there's that boy who went AWOL.'"


Ellie

thedrifter
03-29-05, 05:11 PM
Harper's plans clarification of altered photo of Florida Marine

The Associated Press
March 29. 2005 3:53

Harper's Magazine says it plans to run a clarification after receiving complaints about a photo illustration of several Marines, including one from West Virginia, that appears on the cover of the March issue with a headline promoting an article about deserters.

None of the Marines was identified. The image of Pvt. Britian Kinder, 19, of Pinch, was altered to make him appear as a blurry, ghostly figure. But Kinder's father Mickey said he recognized his son, who is stationed in Pensacola, Fla.

"He's quite upset, angry," the elder Kinder said. "He's a smart boy, a good Christian boy proud to be a Marine. It doesn't say his name specifically in it, but by glancing at it, you'd think he'd gone AWOL. I worry someone would see him out in public and go, 'Look, there's that boy who went AWOL.'"

The photo was taken last June at Parris Island by Getty Images, a photography agency that sold the picture to the magazine.

"We're going to print a clarification in our next issue," said Giulia Melucci, a vice president at New York-based Harper's. "We feel it needs to be clarified that these are respectable soldiers defending our country honorably. We regret any confusion it may have caused."

Ralph Hansen, associate professor of journalism at West Virginia University, questioned the photo illustration.

"Portraying honorable soldiers as deserters is clearly inappropriate. And I don't see any way Harper's could claim that they weren't portraying the young Marines as deserters," Hansen said. "A cover is more than just art. I think that someone had a great idea for a cover illustration and forgot that he or she was dealing with images of real people."

Ellie