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Hasidic Newspaper Removes Clinton, Another Woman From Iconic Photo

Update at 4:30 p.m. ET: The newspaper, Der Tzitung, has apologized "if this was seen as offensive" and says it should not have published the altered photo. It says that "because of laws of modesty, we are not allowed to publish pictures of women." So, presumably, its rules should have barred it from publishing any photo — since it couldn't publish the original and should not have altered it the way it did.

Our original post follows.

In case you haven't heard about this editorial decision:

President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and members of his national security team, including Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Pete Souza / White House
/
White House
President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and members of his national security team, including Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Der Tzitung, a Hasidic newspaper published in Brooklyn, stuck with its editorial policy of never printing photos of women (out of fear that the imagery might be too suggestive) when it used the now iconic photo of President Obama and his advisers anxiously waiting for word from Pakistan about the mission to get al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

So the official photo:

Was turned into this:

Missing from the picture: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Audrey Tomason Director for Counterterrorism, who was standing in the back.

FailedMessiah.com spotted the doctored photo first.

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Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.