NZ Herald reviews procedures after photo of comedian used with dead soldier tribute
The New Zealand Herald has launched an internal review of its editorial processes after a tribute story about an NZ-born Israeli soldier who died in Gaza was accompanied by a photograph of late comedian Ryan Dunn.
The newspaper used two photos of the Jackass star in the mistaken belief it was Guy Boyland, who died last Friday.
Staff sourced the image from Boyland’s Facebook page, with the incorrect photo of Dunn appearing in both today’s print edition and online. It raises immediate questions over what checks are made when sourcing material from Facebook and other social media sites.
When the blunder became apparent, the story was republished online, together with a brief apology, before a full stand-alone apology from editor Shayne Currie was published later in the morning under the headline: ‘Photo error, apology to Boyland family’.
Nice to see an Editor issue a completely unqualified apology.
Jackasses.
So their current process is to rip copyright images from other sites and use those without permission?
That might lead to problems.
The practice of raiding Facebook for public profile pictures of the dearly departed is ubiquitous, was only a matter of time until somebody got tripped up.