Every Picture Tells A Story

The scandal du jour is over Jill Greenberg's photographs for an Atlantic cover on John McCain. During the photo session, Greenberg, a self-described "hard core Democrat," took some intentionally ugly photos of McCain, and even tricked a few up to make them nastier. Almost everyone agrees this was unprofessonial, perhaps even unethical.

What interests me is some claim the cover photo Atlantic used is itself too ugly. (Sorry I haven't uploaded it, but it is in the link.) Greenberg admits "I left his eyes red and his skin looking bad.” But is the magainze trying to make him look bad? I don't see it. It's not lovely, it's not idealized, but it's not beyond the scope of a no-nonsense portrait that some magainze occasionally favor.