A photograph of the teachers' demonstrations with powers

The newspaper Levante has had to apologize for publishing a manipulated cover photograph. The image showed a demonstration of teachers in defense of public education and there was a detail that drew a lot of attention: the banner that dominated the frame bore the initials of the USTEC union. Which was strange, because the C of USTEC corresponds to the C of Catalonia and, therefore, its scope of action does not include the Valencian Country. The newspaper gave the following explanation the next day: "The main photograph on the cover of our printed edition was retouched to maximize the impact of the image, using a digital tool. As a result of the digital treatment, some elements were removed and by mistake, non-existent initials were introduced on the original banner". Even more astonishing is the subtitle, which says: "A photograph that erroneously introduced initials". The subject of the sentence is "A photograph", so we must understand that the image itself came to life and began to modify itself, in an act of rebellion against the reality it had just portrayed.

It is one thing to adjust the contrast, or rebalance the colors – although here some do it also with sinister editorial intention – and another to start removing and adding things because reality does not suit your designs: the documentary value fades and the implicit contract with the readers is broken. All of this leads one to think that the AI was asked to "improve" the photograph, which is a contradiction, and it rolled up its sleeves and said: hold my drink. The case also speaks to us of the lack of human filters associated with the precariousness of the sector. Be that as it may, who would have thought that artificial intelligence would turn out to be pancatalanist. If this happened to Las Provincias they would have a syncope.