General Beauty Queen

In "General Touch Up," BAGNewsNotes analyzes doctored photographs from the US military using the "before" and "after" images of a female commander that were published by the BBC, along with an editorial note about non-inclusion of such altered pictures from the Associated Press.

Beyond the fact that the Army doctored a photo of Ann Dunwoody, America's first female four-star general, I'm curious about how the National Press Photographers Association, along with other media, chose to describe the doctoring itself.

Comparing the grainy original to the redo, NPPA singles out just two aspects. One is the removal of the background and the insertion of old glory. The other is the removal of the stars on Dunwoody's uniform. Naming only these elements, however, gives the sense NPPA purposely avoided the main point, which is the tuning up of Dunwoody herself, including her hair color and complexion.