MIAMI -- The Miami Herald's Spanish-language sister paper acknowledged Friday that it manipulated two photos in a montage that made it falsely appear that two Cuban police officers were ignoring prostitutes gesturing to a tourist. The picture published June 25 in El Nuevo Herald combined two archived photos -- a 1994 photo of the officers by El Nuevo Herald photographer Roberto Koltun, and a 1998 Associated Press photo of the women by John Moore. The two pictures were matched closely enough that it appeared the officers were chatting a few feet from the women, but the picture was not identified as a montage. Executive Editor Humberto Castello said the publication of the picture without an identifying headline was an accident. The problems with the photo montage were first reported Thursday in the Miami New Times, an alternative weekly. A day later, El Nuevo Herald published a long explanation to readers along with the original photographs. ...... "Here there were two mistakes,'' Castello said in an interview in Spanish, "one that the photos weren't properly attributed, the other was that it was not then clarified.'" The montage accompanied a story on a book by Cuban writer Amir Valle, entitled "Jineteras," or "Prostitutes," about the thriving industry on the island. ...... Kenny Irby, a faculty member at the St. Petersburg-based Poynter Institute for journalism, said such incidents can have a broader negative effect on the public's view of the media, casting doubt on authentic photographic work. "They are tainted by association," he said.More of this article...Search Google News for more quotes by Kenny Irby...
