The "Today" show is produced by NBC News, the news division of NBC Universal. NBC News is supposed to be a news show that adheres to journalistic news standards, whereas programs put out by the entertainment division of NBC are not. But in the world of television, the distinction between news and infotainment - and just plain propaganda - has become increasingly blurred in theory and in practice.
Generally speaking, and across all media, exactly what "journalistic news standards" mean and are supposed to mean nowadays is unclear as well.
The issue of whether the "Today" show"tried to soften the facial features of Lia Thomas in these photos aside,
But 1) Today is not NBC News, and 2) removing noise and adjusting color tone and balance is ethical, even by news organization standards.
This looks like another faux-scandal to make conservatives hate the left even more.
This thread isn't about Lia Thomas, but about a photo which was post-processed in a way similar to what many modern TVs do direct from the factory, so I don't want to say anything more about Lia Thomas (in this thread) other than, in my opinion, you cannot be fair to Lia Thomas and fair to other women athletes at the same time, and - as Spock taught me -- the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
I didn't say the Today Show is NBC News. I said it's produced by NBC News. Since NBC first became a stand-alone entity spun off from, and operated independently of, its predecessors, Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and General Electric (GE), NBC has always run NBC News as a distinct division separate from its entertainment and other divisions. Though often the lines between NBC News and the rest of NBC seem as hard to make out as the details of a face intentionally made a bit blurry by today's digital-image filters and methods of photo editing.
BTW, going back to when it started in the 1950s, the Today Show has also been known as "NBC News Today."
As for the rest: the issues that OP brought up and that have been under discussion on this thread are whether the photos were edited - and if they were edited, why. Matters that directly relate to the larger topic of whether NBC News and the rest of the media are showing bias in their coverage of Lia Thomas and the movement that Thomas represents and is backed by.
But even if the issues raised by OP and others were as narrow as you say, who appointed you thread cop?
NBC's Today Show had been caught photoshopping multiple photos of Lia Thomas to make them look more feminine than what the real photos actually look like. They were caught by the photojournalist who actually took the photos and compared them to what NBC broadcasted on national television. Lesson here is never to trust the leftist wokes, they will lie right in your face and fabricate photos.
But 1) Today is not NBC News, and 2) removing noise and adjusting color tone and balance is ethical, even by news organization standards.
This looks like another faux-scandal to make conservatives hate the left even more.
This thread isn't about Lia Thomas, but about a photo which was post-processed in a way similar to what many modern TVs do direct from the factory, so I don't want to say anything more about Lia Thomas (in this thread) other than, in my opinion, you cannot be fair to Lia Thomas and fair to other women athletes at the same time, and - as Spock taught me -- the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
I didn't say the Today Show is NBC News. I said it's produced by NBC News. Since NBC first became a stand-alone entity spun off from, and operated independently of, its predecessors, Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and General Electric (GE), NBC has always run NBC News as a distinct division separate from its entertainment and other divisions. Though often the lines between NBC News and the rest of NBC seem as hard to make out as the details of a face intentionally made a bit blurry by today's digital-image filters and methods of photo editing.
BTW, going back to when it started in the 1950s, the Today Show has also been known as "NBC News Today."
As for the rest: the issues that OP brought up and that have been under discussion on this thread are whether the photos were edited - and if they were edited, why. Matters that directly relate to the larger topic of whether NBC News and the rest of the media are showing bias in their coverage of Lia Thomas and the movement that Thomas represents and is backed by.
But even if the issues raised by OP and others were as narrow as you say, who appointed you thread cop?
I am not being thread cop -- just saying that I didn't want to respond to most of your post that wasn't about the photo.
Someone gave me a link describing the ethics of news organizations that says that photos can be ethically cleaned up and color balanced, so the whole story seems like a non-issue.
I didn't say the Today Show is NBC News. I said it's produced by NBC News. Since NBC first became a stand-alone entity spun off from, and operated independently of, its predecessors, Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and General Electric (GE), NBC has always run NBC News as a distinct division separate from its entertainment and other divisions. Though often the lines between NBC News and the rest of NBC seem as hard to make out as the details of a face intentionally made a bit blurry by today's digital-image filters and methods of photo editing.
BTW, going back to when it started in the 1950s, the Today Show has also been known as "NBC News Today."
As for the rest: the issues that OP brought up and that have been under discussion on this thread are whether the photos were edited - and if they were edited, why. Matters that directly relate to the larger topic of whether NBC News and the rest of the media are showing bias in their coverage of Lia Thomas and the movement that Thomas represents and is backed by.
But even if the issues raised by OP and others were as narrow as you say, who appointed you thread cop?
Someone gave me a link describing the ethics of news organizations that says that photos can be ethically cleaned up and color balanced, so the whole story seems like a non-issue.
Except the photo in question was much more than "cleaned up and color balanced." It was deliberately edited to make Thomas look softer and more feminine looking. I can tell you don't have a lot of experience with editing photos, but from those of us who use photo editing software regularly, it's obvious what was going on.
Someone gave me a link describing the ethics of news organizations that says that photos can be ethically cleaned up and color balanced, so the whole story seems like a non-issue.
Except the photo in question was much more than "cleaned up and color balanced." It was deliberately edited to make Thomas look softer and more feminine looking. I can tell you don't have a lot of experience with editing photos, but from those of us who use photo editing software regularly, it's obvious what was going on.
Says a self-credentialed anonymous guy posting on letsrun.
The question I raised, and no one has yet to address, is how does a photographer, or a photo editor, or a conservative biased journalist, or an anonymous letsrun poster, possibly know who "edited" the photo and the deliberate motive for such edits?
The answer lies deep within the minds of the accusers.
NBC doesn't broadcast photos, but videos, and my modern TV has a number of settings that can achieve the same effect, without NBC's involvement or knowledge, and no photo editing experience required.
We are looking at a video capture with similar settings enabled, and a small but vocal group of conservative extremists looking for yet another faux-scandal and an echo chamber to reinforce their ideas about the mainstream media bias, and justify their hatred for people they don't understand.
NBC's Today Show had been caught photoshopping multiple photos of Lia Thomas to make them look more feminine than what the real photos actually look like. They were caught by the photojournalist who actually took the photos and compared them to what NBC broadcasted on national television. Lesson here is never to trust the leftist wokes, they will lie right in your face and fabricate photos.
I don't know who did it, but the photo on the right has definitely been photoshopped. I have PortraitPro 19 and it will do everything you see in the photo on the right just by moving sliders. You don't even need to be an expert. There are sliders for smoothing skin, colors, skin spots, eyes, whites of the eyes, eyebrows, hair color, direction of lighting, and so on.
In the photo on the right, the skin has been smoothed significantly. Water drops on the right cheek, right shoulder, and lower chin have disappeared. A tiny black mark on the back on the right shoulder is gone. The eyebrows are smudged instead of distinct. The wrinkles on the neck are gone. The red goggle marks are gone. This done by moving a red color slider set for the face only so the straps on the suit stay red.
One odd anomaly is the left eye socket. It's darker. Personally, I would have lightened it a bit. It would have made a more esthetically pleasing photo.
