AP senior vice president and executive editor Kathleen Carroll said in a statement Wednesday the news organization “fell short” by not providing the full context in an image of Mitt Romney bent over in front of a surprised looking girl:
“The original caption on the photo of Gov. Romney taken Monday at a Virginia school was literally correct — it said the governor was posing for photos with schoolchildren. But it was too generic and missed the boat by not explaining exactly what was happening. The student with the surprised expression had just realized that the governor was going to crouch down in front of her for the group photo.
“We amended the caption on Tuesday with that explanation, but by then many people had seen the photo and were confused by or angry about it. Those generic captions help us process a large number of photos on a busy campaign day, but some photos demand more explanation and we fell short of our own standards by not providing it in this case.”
The AP added a note to the image’s caption on Tuesday. Fox News’ website on Tuesday questioned whether the photo was a “cheap shot” and called it “unflattering.”
