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Atlantic magazine and its writer Jeffrey Goldberg are unhappy that Los Angeles photographer Jill Greenberg turned in manipulated photos of John McCain for a story, then announced that she had tweaked the lighting to make McCain look bad. Here's what Goldberg says on his blog:
Like others at the Atlantic, I was appalled to read about the actions of Jill Greenberg, the freelance photographer who took the cover portrait that illustrates my article about John McCain. Greenberg doctored photographs of McCain she took during her Atlantic-arranged shoot, which took place last month in Las Vegas. She has posted these doctored photographs on her website, which you can go find yourself, if you must. Suffice it to say that her "art" is juvenile, and on occasion repulsive. This is not the issue, of course; the issue is that she betrayed this magazine, and disgraced her profession.[skip]
Every so often, journalists become deranged at the sight of certain candidates, and lose their bearings. Why, this has even happened in the case of John McCain once or twice. What I find truly astonishing is the blithe way in which she has tried to hurt this magazine.
Atlantic editor James Bennet told the New York Post, "We feel totally blind-sided,' he said. 'Her behavior is outrageous. Incredibly unprofessional." Greenberg titles her website The Manipulator and featured a portrait of McCain lit to make him look a bit eerie. The Post story says she bragged on a blog, "He had no idea he was being lit from below...I guess they're not very sophisticated." She says in the Post: "Some of my artwork has been pretty anti-Bush, so maybe it was somewhat irresponsible for [The Atlantic] to hire me." Greenberg shoots for Los Angeles magazine (she did the recent Mirthala Salinas portrait and the photo for my Antonio Villaraigosa profile in 2006) and she also shot those bears for the Los Angeles Times magazine that were supposed to resemble former California governors.