Powerful Images and Fake News.
In June 2018, an award-winning Getty Images photographer John Moore captured an image of a crying, two-year-old child beside her mother and a U.S. border agent, later causing a controversial image that even caught the attention of the Whitehouse. John Moore expressed that he captured a raw and honest image to publicize the terror experienced by many undocumented immigrants. Moore also explained that the photo was a representation of the separation of families that thousands of undocumented immigrants go through because of President Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy toward undocumented immigrants. Causing thousands of children, parents, and family members to be separated at the U.S. border as a form of punishment for attempting to cross illegally.
The photo of the child beside her mother had such a significant public impact that shortly after its publication, Trump issued an unusual retreat and ended the hardline policy of separating families. Initially, when Moore captured the image, he wasn’t sure if the mother, Sandra Sanchez, and her daughter, Yanela, would be separated during their immigration interview. However, on June 21, 2018, Time Magazine’s cover featured only Yanela as if she was facing Trump and not the border agent or even her mother next to her as the original photo taken by John Moore. The Time magazine cover was President Trump staring down at Yanela with a caption reading, “Welcome to America.”.
With several backlashes from the public, President Trump was forced to make a statement. When Trump’s administration researched, they discovered that the child and her mother were detained without being separated and accused Time of running “fake news.” Time later made corrections, which made clear that the child was not taken away from her mother by border agents. Still, Time defended its decision to run the cover’s photo illustration reminding the public that the image taken by John Moore is a reminder that there are thousands of undocumented immigrants being Separated from there of families.
Author Cathie Leblanc describes fake news as the “demonstrably false information that is being presented as a factual news report to deceive the public” (Leblanc, 2017). When John Moore took this photo of Yanela, he intended to educate and galvanize the public about immigration issues and not deceive the public into thinking that Time magazine was an unreliable source. The purpose of Time posting this cover was to spread a vital message about Trump’s immigration policies. Using the term “fake news” was irresponsible of the Whitehouse’s administration; it can mislead the public and ruin the legacy of Time Magazine. To conclude, I believe that Time needs to protect its integrity and post controversial illustrations with all the necessary information. By doing this, they protect their staff and the reputation of the company. If Time didn’t rush the cover’s release, they could have easily corrected the white house by saying that they included this information throughout the article. Trump had the perfect opportunity to redirect the public to think that it’s the media who mislead because of their simple mistake to include picture descriptions.
References
Lauricella, S. (2018). Does the photo fit the news? The ethics of powerful images in the immigration debate. Media Ethics, 30(1). https://www.mediaethicsmagazine.com/index.php/browse-back-issues/210-fall-2018-vol/3999232-does-the-photo-fit-the-news.
LeBlanc, C. (n.d.). What is “fake news”? In Fake news and what to do about it. Pressbooks. https://fakenews.pressbooks.com/chapter/what-is-fake-news/
