Hold this photo up to a mirror ......
An embarrassing, frustrating and disappointing thing happened on our front page today: We published a photo backwards. It wasn't intentional, but it happened. 
This beautiful photo of Lady Bird Johnson is what we call "flopped." We requested it from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center because it captures her spirit, her passion and perhaps her personality. And it's an iconic image that says "Texas" in no uncertain terms. The photo has also been on the center's website _ that's where we first saw it and that's who sent it to us to publish. It's not comfort, but we weren't the only paper to use the photo this way. (San Antonio did the same thing, but the link to that page has expired, so we can't copy that here.) In the digital world, we don't have negatives to check as original source material. In this case, the center's webmaster, a credible source, sent it to us. Often, as in today's case, it's after an editor sees the photo published differently elsewhere that we may wonder if something's not right. There are some telltale signs in the photo, but even those can be deceiving: Mrs. Johnson has a ring on what appears to be her left hand. But a colleague called the photographer this morning and he told us she'd switched it to her right hand after her husband, Lyndon, died. When photos are intentionally manipulated _ clearly not the case here _ we consider it unethical and a breach in our credibility. In this case, the photo's still beautiful but it's just not right.
_ Larry Lutz
"We weren't the only ones to get it wrong" -- the standard response from today's media when a mistake comes to light.
Posted by: Robert Knilands | July 12, 2007 at 12:49 PM
You act like the newspaper is run by robots and not humans, Robert. Reading the explaination, it doesn't exactly sound like the newspaper acted with reckless abandon. Also, the phrase "comes to light" makes it sound like the newspaper isn't admitting its own mistake.
Posted by: Lee | July 12, 2007 at 02:53 PM
Don't worry about what Knilands says he seams to think he's some kind of authority on journalism. Very funny considering he doesn't even work for one.
Posted by: Billy Simkins | July 12, 2007 at 07:05 PM
All non-applicable to the point. When newspapers obsess about the look of their front pages, they ignore details like this.
Posted by: Robert Knilands | July 13, 2007 at 10:35 AM