PressEthic

A digitally edited photo of ABC news anchor Elizabeth Vargas in the December issue of Marie Claire magazine has stirred up some controversy with both the newswoman and her network. The picture in question depicts Vargas sitting at her news desk, smiling for the camera, and ready to report the news – all while breastfeeding.

Jessica Heslam of the Boston Herald reported:

"The phony photo appears in the December issue of Marie Claire magazine alongside an interview with Vargas. The small, typed caption says 'photo illustration.'

'While Elizabeth Vargas was happy to discuss issues of balancing work and motherhood and is quite proud to breastfeed her newborn son, she was disappointed that Marie Claire chose to Photoshop her head onto a fake image,' an ABC spokesperson said in a written statement."

But the magazine responded with a statement defending its actions.

"'There isn’t a working mother who can’t relate to this image and immediately identify with the very real dilemma Elizabeth Vargas wrestled with. We do not believe anyone seriously thought she would nurse and report the news (at) the same time!' a Marie Claire spokesperson said in a statement.

'We wanted an arresting, satirical image to make the reader stop and read this important story about what happens when job and family collide. This is an image illustration and is stated so with the byline of this story,' the statement said."

The article goes on to quote a couple of professors of law and photojournalism who seem to agree that Marie Claire crossed a line of both ethics and taste with the photo, and that Vargas does indeed deserve an apology.

I think it’s interesting that Heslam ended her article with a quote from a woman named Anne Merewood, who works at the “Breastfeeding Center” of a local Boston hospital, because I wonder how much of a brouhaha an altered photograph of her doing anything other than breastfeeding (like lets say, even just holding or burping her baby) at work would have caused.

Though I personally don’t see how anyone could have confused the photo for reality, I do think that Marie Clare should have discussed the idea with Vargas first, simply because breastfeeding, specifically images of breastfeeding, has already proven to be a very sensitive topic for magazines.