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Double take

The Army has reminded its public affairs officers of proper guidelines for handling photographs after The Associated Press removed from its service a digitally altered image of Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody, the military’s first female four-star general.

It was the second Army image the AP eliminated in as many months and prompted the wire service to temporarily suspend its use of Defense Department images.

Bob Owen, deputy director of photography at the San Antonio Express-News, first reported the altered photograph, which ran at least once on a Military Times Web site.

“It looked a little too doctored, too clean,” he said.

It’s unclear, however, who altered the photograph, and how it ended up on the AP wire.

Army spokesman Paul Boyce said he was told the Dunwoody image was to be published in Army Logistician, a bimonthly journal, either before or after Dunwoody’s Nov. 14 promotion ceremony.

But Robert Paulus, editor of Army Logistician, said his publication has never published an image of Dunwoody, and didn’t plan to.

Christian Sheehy, editor of Military Logistics Forum, a magazine published by KMI Media Group in Rockville, Md., said an image of Dunwoody appeared on the cover of the January-February 2007 issue, but without an American flag background.

Meanwhile, Boyce said the altered image didn’t appear to violate Defense Department image policy, which prohibits “cropping, editing or image enlargement that has the effect of misrepresenting the facts or circumstances of the event or object as originally recorded.”

Owen also reported in September a photo the AP banned of a deceased soldier, Staff Sgt. Darris Dawson, whose face, name and rank insignia appeared to have been altered.

DISCUSS: The photos