DY
Ive been busy over the weekend but thanks for replying to my question
“No, I would not have hed this picture published. It might not have been fraudulent or illegal or disrespectful, but it was still not a good idea.”
so we agree as does Z-dad and probably most people here That it was not a good idea!
As far as fraudulent, illegal, and disrespectfull:
Editing a picture to depict events as they didnt happen is certainly fraudulent. You can argue as some did that “tznius” is more importnat than Emes. And that may be true. We know sholom bayis is sometimes more important than emes, Telling the truth is not the be all end all. Obviously a paper cant print Lashan Hara even if it is emes. By definition to a frum paper telling thwe truth CANNOT be their number one prioity, however that doesnt make doctored pictures truthful.
As far as the legality, I’m not sure,I doubt it is illegal.
As far as disrespect. This by definition is subjective, and not (solely) dependent on intent. If you sit down when say Obama enters the room becuase your legs are tired, you may not have meant to be disrespecful but you can bet it will be percieved that way. Editing women out of history (in this case literally) even without intent to be disrespecful is understandably percieved tha way. and silly platitude type answers (Kol Kevod Bas melech pnima etc), may work for some that are datan kalos but dont mitigate the (even if only) percieved disrespect.