Follow-Up to EGM's distateful photomanipulation

[James]

For those of you who don't remember, a couple months ago, EGM printed an image of Russian soldiers holding photos of their fallen brethren. But the replaced the pictures with copies of SOCOM II. A lot of people got very upset when they learned the context of the original picture.

In my latest EGM, they printed an apology:

"I've done a lot of stupid things in my life, like trying to fix a bent PlayStation 2 fan with a paper clip (now I can use my PS2 to send smoke signals) and giving Superman 64 a review score of 1.5 out of 10 (it should've been about 1.5 points lower), but none more stupid than altering a picture used in the February issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, where we covered up the faces of Russian soldiers who died in the line of duty. Despite out ignorance of the photo's original context, the end result was disrespectful, tactless, and just plain wrong. It was a mistake I deeply regret. The original photo was printed here.

"We'd like to apologize to everyone affected by our picture, including Sony Computer Entertainment, Zipper Interactive, Getty Images, the Russian community, and most of all, the soldiers and veterans who we've dishonored. We're making a donation to the appropriate veterans' funds in Russia to show we're truly sorry for our mistake."

-Shoe, Editor-in-Chief