by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
The National Archives, once revered as America's premier preservationist of historical records - including photographic records - has now been caught photo-shopping historical images. Yesterday, on the third anniversary of the annual Women's March in Washington, DC, and across the nation, the National Archives was forced to admit that it had altered a photo of the massive crowd that attended the first march in Washington, DC, in 2017 - a march that had been held one day after Donald Trump had been inaugurated - and a march that drew much larger crowds than those which had attended Trump's inauguration.
In the fudged photo, one that was being exhibited at a National Archives event honoring the 100th anniversary of Women's suffrage, an image of the enormous crowd had been blurred so that many of the signs which had been critical of Trump were no longer legible. The National Archives apparently had not wanted to aggravate Trump and his supporters, and there were also some excuses made about the need to edit out words like "vagina" and "pussy" so as not to offend young viewers of the exhibit - or their parents.
The large distorted photograph has now been removed, and the National Archives has issued an apology for censoring history. The agency has promised to replace the photo with an unedited version as soon as possible.
As someone who is both a lifelong student of history and an active family researcher, I find it troubling that the country's most trusted repository of history could be so easily corrupted by a political force. Somewhere in this Orwellian administration there have to be lines that cannot be crossed - and I had always hoped that the National Archives was one of those sacrosanct entities.
But it looks like I was wrong.
History which has been photo-shopped is nothing more than delusion, and when that happens we might as well trust our historical record to Hollywood.
(Atonement for this disgrace needs to include some personnel changes at the National Archives!)
Citizen Journalist
The National Archives, once revered as America's premier preservationist of historical records - including photographic records - has now been caught photo-shopping historical images. Yesterday, on the third anniversary of the annual Women's March in Washington, DC, and across the nation, the National Archives was forced to admit that it had altered a photo of the massive crowd that attended the first march in Washington, DC, in 2017 - a march that had been held one day after Donald Trump had been inaugurated - and a march that drew much larger crowds than those which had attended Trump's inauguration.
In the fudged photo, one that was being exhibited at a National Archives event honoring the 100th anniversary of Women's suffrage, an image of the enormous crowd had been blurred so that many of the signs which had been critical of Trump were no longer legible. The National Archives apparently had not wanted to aggravate Trump and his supporters, and there were also some excuses made about the need to edit out words like "vagina" and "pussy" so as not to offend young viewers of the exhibit - or their parents.
The large distorted photograph has now been removed, and the National Archives has issued an apology for censoring history. The agency has promised to replace the photo with an unedited version as soon as possible.
As someone who is both a lifelong student of history and an active family researcher, I find it troubling that the country's most trusted repository of history could be so easily corrupted by a political force. Somewhere in this Orwellian administration there have to be lines that cannot be crossed - and I had always hoped that the National Archives was one of those sacrosanct entities.
But it looks like I was wrong.
History which has been photo-shopped is nothing more than delusion, and when that happens we might as well trust our historical record to Hollywood.
(Atonement for this disgrace needs to include some personnel changes at the National Archives!)
No comments:
Post a Comment