The executive producer of CBS’ "48 Hours Mystery" has apologized for airing an altered image of the front page of the Tribune in an episode about the murder trial of Ryan Ferguson that aired Saturday night. CBS aired an altered image of the Tribune’s front page for its “48 Hours Mystery.” The producer, Susan Zirinsky, said she didn’t know the image of the front page containing the story about Ferguson’s sentencing had been manipulated until this week after Tribune Managing Editor Jim Robertson complained to CBS in an e-mail. "It was an egregious oversight for us not to know it," Zirinsky said. "It was a graphic, and we don’t feel it changed the editorial value of the story, per se."Bob Steele, a senior ethics faculty member at the Poynter Institute, a premier journalism training center in Florida, said CBS executives should apologize to viewers and use the network’s Web site to explain what went wrong and accept responsibility for an ethical failure. "What they did wrong was twofold," he said. "One, they altered reality by changing a piece of documentary journalism. Secondly, they deceived their viewers because they left them with the impression that what they showed was a truthful representation of what the newspaper showed."
The TV newsmagazine showed several front pages from the Tribune during its hourlong program "Dream Killer," about the trial of Ferguson, found guilty in October of killing Tribune Sports Editor Kent Heitholt. During the show, which raised the question of whether Ferguson was wrongly convicted, a graphic of the TribuneÂ’s Dec. 5 front page showed a photograph of Ferguson that was different from what actually appeared in the Tribune. The original photograph showed Ferguson in a jail uniform as he appeared at his sentencing. In "Dream Killer," Ferguson was shown in a suit and tie.
Zirinsky said the graphic has been changed in the master tape of the program to accurately reflect the TribuneÂ’s front page. A freelancer hired by CBS for the first time was responsible for the alteration, Zirinsky said. "We feel we are doing the right thing," she said. "We have apologized to the editor."
| Eh? Looks like a minor oversight to me. |
| I gather the tone of the whole program was slanted towards this killer. Photoshopping the newspaper front page to make him look respectable and mature rather than the shot of him in an orange jumpsuit talking to his lawyer in court fits that. They really didn't need to show the newspaper at all, so why do it if not to convey a visual impression? |