pension333: New York Daily News doctored picture of Boston bombing victim

I see the former News of the World editor, Colin Myler, is in a spot of bother at the New York Daily News.

His paper used a doctored picture of a Boston marathon bombing victim on its front page on Tuesday.

As you can see above, the woman receiving medical attention in the background is not visibly wounded. But that's because the bloody injury to her leg - visible in this close-up of the original picture - has been photo-shopped to delete it from the image.

Soon after publication, Charles Apple, an editor with the Orange County Register in California, who wrote in a blog post:

"Looks to me like somebody did a little doctoring of that photo to remove a bit of gore. If you can't stomach the gore, don't run the photo. Period."

On Wednesday, the Daily News responded to controversy by stating that the paper manipulated the image in order to spare readers the sight of gore.

The paper's spokesman, Ken Frydman, explained that the photo was edited "out of sensitivity to the victims, the families and the survivors." He added: "Frankly, I think the rest of the media should have been as sensitive as the Daily News."

According to the New York Times's report, one Daily News staff photographer said that editorial staff "were shocked" about the doctoring.

By yesterday afternoon, the Daily News appeared to have buckled under the weight of criticism by posting the unaltered version on its website.

So what did editor Myler have to say? Nothing, evidently. Politico reports that he failed to respond to requests for comment.

Indeed, the Daily News's original reaction was to issue a statement saying: "The Daily News does not comment on its editorial decision-making."

As Poynter's Andrew Beaujon observed: "That's a curious stance for an organisation that purports to hold others responsible for their actions." Quite so.

Clearly, Frydman - or Myler perhaps - realised how embarrassing it was for a newspaper to say "no comment" to inquiring journalists.

Sources: Capital/New York Times/International Business Times/Politico/Poynter