In a picture widely distributed to the media last month, a normal-looking Couric wore a frumpy light gray suit and her trademark smile. But thanks to Photoshop, the popular editing software, the same photo, printed in a CBS magazine, shows her looking much, much thinner – and her suit has become a few shades darker.
—Weighing Anchor: CBS Photo Trickery Takes a Load Off ‘Slimmer’ Couric (New York Post)
I’ve blogged before rather flippantly about Adobe’s attempts to fight the generic verb “photoshop,” but this article credits the software as a proper noun. But there’s no source for the implicit claim that Photoshop really was the software used, rather than, say The Gimp.
The conventions and standards of a PR department differ from those of the news department. I think it’s reasonable to assume the news folks had no idea this would happen, but the before and after photos really do remind us how much the TV personality cult is driven by image, rather than talent (accuracy, insight, depth, etc.).
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Couric's been photoshopped? What's next? Male network anchors wearing make-up?
Oh....
It's a sad, sick world we live in. I don't know what's worse: the "obesity epidemic" or the annorexia-inducing pressure to be thin. Well, considering a news agency felt it necessary to alter a healthy-looking news anchor's weight...