New York Times Selma photo sparks outrage for excluding the Bushes

George W. Bush and his wife Laura were mere feet from the first family as they led a crowd through Selma, Alabama to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the "Bloody Sunday" civil rights march there over the weekend, but you wouldn't have known that by looking at the front page of Sunday's New York Times.

The Bushes' omission from the photo prompted outrage from some on the right, who said that the Bushes were deliberately left out of the photo in a glaring example of media bias.

The Times photographer who took the photo, however, said bias was not involved in the photo formatting, and that he chose the picture sans Bushes because they were in the sun and overexposed, and the picture just did not turn out well.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

Margaret Sullivan, the Times' public editor, concluded: "While it would have been moving and worthwhile to see both presidents in a front-page photograph, I see no evidence of politics in the handling or presentation of the photo."