So, you run a vegan magazine on a limited budget and you need to find a picture to illustrate your story. Is it okay to use a stock photo featuring meat and then Photoshop it out? That's the question slicing through the vegan community today after the blogger Quarrygirl revealed that 11-year-old vegan magazine VegNews was doing just that on a regular basis. Those appetizing vegan spare ribs? They just 'shopped out the bones!
Does it really matter if photos of dishes have meat as long as the recipes listed still taste good? Quarrygirl, and her commenters, certainly think it does:
Why does this matter? After all, a picture is just a picture, right? Unfortunately, this situation exposes a clear issue with the editorial integrity of Veg News. They are KNOWINGLY publishing misleading pictures of MEAT dishes, and passing them off as vegan. If they will stoop that low (and appear to have been doing so for years) what else can we not trust about this formerly erstwhile publication?
VegNews, for its part, thinks the hate that has been poured on them since Quarrygirl's post went up is a little bit much. In a letter on the subject they explain that the pictures used are a circumstance of finance, not a secret ploy to trick hapless vegans into drooling over the delicious, bloody sinews of cruelly slaughtered animals:
Yes, from time to time, after exhausting all options, we have resorted to using stock photography that may or may not be vegan. In an ideal world we would use custom-shot photography for every spread, but it is simply not financially feasible for VegNews at this time. In those rare times that we use an image that isn’t vegan, our entire (vegan) staff weighs in on whether or not it’s appropriate. It is industry standard to use stock photography in magazines—and, sadly, there are very few specifically vegan images offered by stock companies. In addition, it’s exceedingly challenging to find non-stock imagery that meets the standard necessary for publication. We would love nothing more than to use only vegan photography shot by vegan photographers, and we hope to be there soon.
And its true, it is a tough economic climate out there for all publishers, not just publishers catering to a strictly vegan diet. So, what say you, humble readers? Should VegNews change its name to CarnNews, was their apology enough, or is this all just much tofu about nothing?
