The wonders of graphic design! NBC airbrushed a photo of Penn University swimmer Will “Lia” Thomas to portray him more like a cover girl than a manly man. Thomas took home the national women’s swimming title last week. This denied Thomas and other women their place as All-Americans or champions.
In the doctored photo, Thomas has the soft facial skin of a girl. The original photo shows Thomas looking more like a man who has a more rugged face.
Bizpacreview reported, “During a “Today” segment last week, the network displayed at least one blatantly digitally altered photo, allegedly to give Thomas what critics say is a ‘feminine glow.’
“This obvious contrast has led to accusations that NBC News is trying to manipulate its viewers amid the controversy surrounding Thomas.”
The Todd Starnes World Net Daily website commented: “As if fake news were not fake enough already, now NBC is accused of airbrushing a photograph of collegiate swimmer Lia Thomas to make the transgender athlete appear more feminine.”
“We’re so old we remember the controversy over TIME magazine darkening O.J. Simpson’s mug shot for its cover, eliciting accusations of racism. And then there’s that photo of the Capitol riot they always use that makes it look like the building’s surrounded by flames. The act of altering photographs is a very risky one.
“Now we can’t unsee it. Why did NBC News put a soft filter on Thomas’ face?”
Starnes also pointed out that Starnes was implying that Starnes had deliberately altered the photo. He listed several Twitter complaints about the obvious attempt by NBC to make Thomas look more feminine and less of an intruder on women’s sports.:
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“Gotta soften that jawline. Lol.”
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“Is this to give the ‘feminine’ glow 🙄 pathetic.”
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“That’s like what Rolling Stone did to the Boston Bomber when he was on their front page. He looked like [a] glamor model.”
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“Yes, and nice job too, totally looks like a woman now 🙄”
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“To look less manly? Too bad you need more than an airbrush to conceal other stuff.”
“It’s pretty damn obvious,” said a report by Twitchy.com.
Ian Miles Cheong, a well-known social media commenter, Tweeted, “Journalists used to get fired for airbrushing news photographs. Now they’re airbrushing Lia Thomas (for obvious reasons) and apparently that is journalism.”
If NBC was attempting to soften criticism of the male Thomas’s opportunistic exploitation of a women’s sports team, the attempt obviously failed.
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