A photo in a hospital newsletter is getting some notice after the challenger in a NY Senate race was photoshopped out, while the incumbent’s representative was left in the picture.
The photograph shows a crowd of people just as a ribbon was cut celebrating a remodeled urgent care facility. Among those holding scissors in the front row is a representative of incumbent Republican state Senator Pattie Ritchie. Just behind her left shoulder stands the Democratic challenger Oswego County Legislator Amy Tresidder. That picture was published in newspapers and is on Oswego Health’s Facebook page. But when the hospital published their newsletter highlighting the ribbon cutting event, Tresidder had been digitally removed from the photo.
Middlebury College Associate Professor of Political Science Bert Johnson says it’s a crude, rudimentary manipulation. Tressider’s legs remain, edges of her body are traceable along the person in front of her, and an attempt to clone a wall to replace her was not color-matched to the surroundings.
In a report published in The Watertown Daily Times, the newspaper was told by the hospital that Tresidder was removed because they couldn’t identify her for the caption. SUNY Albany Professor of Sociology Dr. Richard Lachmann is amazed and says that’s not a valid reason to remove someone from a photo.
Democrat Amy Tresidder finds the hospital’s explanation for cutting her out of the photo odd, but says it’s not a big issue.
Oswego Health is not granting interviews, and instead e-mailed this statement: “Oswego Health President and CEO Ann C. Gilpin has already apologized to Amy Tresidder... Oswego Health is taking internal action ...to ensure this does not occur again.”
