Daily Telegraph denies digitally altering image of van pictured in child abduction article
News Corp’s Sydney tabloid The Daily Telegraph has insisted it did not alter a photograph featured on its front page this morning, despite the printed image appearing to be missing the faint outline of an ‘S’ which can be seen in a version on its website.
The front page of the News Corp tabloid this morning features image of Bill Spedding, a person of interest in the case of missing toddler William Tyrell, standing next to his van which carries the sign PEDDO’S HIRE. His company is called Speddo’s Hire.
A close up photograph of the image as it appeared on the front page of this morning’s The Daily Telegraph
The same image on the web version of the article shows the faint outline of an ‘S’ which had been peeled from the van.
Mumbrella raised the question with News Corp after a Telegraph reader emailed to suggest the image had been deliberately altered to remove the S. However, it appears that the letter had already been peeled off the van, leaving only the faint residue.
A spokesman for News Corp denied the paper had digitally altered the image to remove this residue, and blamed the missing outline on the reproduction quality in the print edition.
The same photo on the website shows the faint outline of an ‘S’ on the sign
The S can be made out on the website image
The spokesman said: “The photograph, which was taken by a News Corp photographer, has not been altered in any way, either in print or online.”
The article itself charts how Spedding, named as a person of interest in the disappearance of three-year-old William Tyrell, was spotted driving past the police hunt for the child’s body yesterday morning.
Another picture of Spedding and his van taken yesterday used further down the web article also shows the outline of the ‘S’, although that picture was not used in the newspaper coverage. It appears the R and E on hire have also been partially removed.
The second image of Spedding and the van used on the web version of the article
A picture of Spedding with a similar van, carried in a story on the Telegraph’s website on January 25, shows the ‘S’ clearly at the front of the sign, although if it is the same van, appears to have been peeled off by someone since.
The picture of Spedding and the van from the Tele’s website in January this year
Mumbrella does not suggest that The Telegraph played any part in the physical removal of the letters.
Last year it was revealed The Telegraph had superimposed a picture of former Fairfax columnist Mike Carlton’s head on the body of a Boston bombing victim, wearing an Arab-styl keffiyah headdress. However that caption did carry the disclaimer: ‘Image had been digitally altered’, which the company says is standard practice when it has changed imges.
The photoshopped image of Mike Carlton which carried the disclaimer ‘Image digitally altered’
Alex Hayes
To be fair, once the image has been through profiling, UCR, and GCR, it’s unlikely that there’d be anything left of that “S”. Would be interesting to run the same file through our workflow and RIPs, see how it turns out.
To be less fair, “fucking lol”.
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Following on from above… Take into account the minimum highlight dot for newsprint which would have wiped out any slight difference on top of newsprint not being pure white, you can say goodbye to any of that area. You citizens of the digital world should probably consult some old school print professionals before making wild assumptions.
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Surely the main issue is that this guy doesn’t even seem to be a prime suspect, and the Tele is plastering his image all over their paper? Awful, populist drivel.
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The van appeared in this evening’s news bulletin and it does indeed appear the “S” was already removed from the decal, not photoshopped.
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So someone in Port Macquarie removed a letter from a work van and it’s the Tele’s fault? Is that the story?
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It seems as if someone in the town pulled the “S” off as a joke. If this man is innocent, I hope he gets some major compensation for his loss and pain. If he’s guilty he must know that it won’t be long… What a tragedy for WIlliam regardless.
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