From The Tampa Bay Tribune, 8/3/05:
http://www.tampatrib.com/FloridaMetro/MGBY1483XBE.html
Harris Says Newspapers 'Colorized' Photographs, Distorting Her Makeup
By WILLIAM MARCH
TAMPA -
During the presidential election recount of 2000, Florida was in a white- hot spotlight, focused on a woman not accustomed to national publicity - then-Secretary of State Katherine Harris.
Harris' decision against a ballot recount made her a hero to Republicans and anathema to Democrats.
She also was bashed for something else: her makeup.
One Democratic commentator compared her to Cruella DeVil of the Disney movie ''101 Dalmatians.''
Comic Jay Leno said a cold snap made Florida so chilly Harris ''put on a third layer of makeup.''
On Monday, on a conservative radio talk show, Harris, now a congresswoman from Longboat Key running for the U.S. Senate, hit back, blaming newspapers for the criticism and charging that some - without saying which - altered her photographs.
''I'm actually very sensitive about those things, and it's personally painful,'' Harris said when host Sean Hannity asked about her image problems from 2000.
''But they're outrageously false, No. 1, and No. 2, you know, whenever they made fun of my makeup, it was because the newspapers colorized my photograph,'' Harris said.
She didn't explain what she meant by ''colorized.''
Asked Tuesday to point to an altered photograph, Harris and her staff could not.
Her response to the question, said spokesman Adam Goodman, was, ''I haven't worn blue eye shadow since the seventh grade when I was in the Girl Scouts.''
She didn't name a newspaper that showed blue eye shadow.
Asked why Harris would make the accusation that photos had been altered - an ethical breach for most newspapers - he said, ''I think what she's saying is the number of photographs that were run that were unflattering was large, and that was unfair because the only reason this was made a caricature built around cosmetics was because she was a woman.''
Most newspapers, including the Tribune, forbid changing photographic images.
''Manipulating an image in any form is not allowed'' by The Associated Press, which distributes photos to newspapers nationwide, said David Ake, AP national deputy photography director.
''We're pretty adamant about that. We have terminated people for it.''
Ake was AP photo editor in Florida during the 2000 recount, ''and I can tell you we did no manipulation whatever,'' he said.
Some political experts say Harris' charge makes little sense because most Americans got their visual image of Harris from television.
