Harper's Magazine says it plans to run a clarification after receiving complaints about a photo illustration of several Marines, including one from West Virginia, that appears on the cover of the March issue with a headline promoting an article about deserters.
None of the Marines was identified. The image of Pvt. Britian Kinder, 19, of Pinch, was altered to make him appear as a blurry, ghostly figure. But Kinder's father, Mickey, said he recognized his son, who is stationed in Pensacola, Fla.
"He's quite upset, angry," the elder Kinder said. "He's a smart boy, a good Christian boy proud to be a Marine. It doesn't say his name specifically in it, but by glancing at it, you'd think he'd gone AWOL. I worry someone would see him out in public and go, 'Look, there's that boy who went AWOL.'"
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The photo was taken last June at Parris Island by Getty Images, a photography agency that sold the picture to the magazine.
"We're going to print a clarification in our next issue," said Giulia Melucci, a vice president at New York-based Harper's. "We feel it needs to be clarified that these are respectable soldiers defending our country honorably. We regret any confusion it may have caused."
Ralph Hansen, associate professor of journalism at West Virginia University, questioned the photo illustration.
"Portraying honorable soldiers as deserters is clearly inappropriate. And I don't see any way Harper's could claim that they weren't portraying the young Marines as deserters," Hansen said. "A cover is more than just art. I think that someone had a great idea for a cover illustration and forgot that he or she was dealing with images of real people."
© 2005 Associated Press.
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