An "Oops!" at CBS News

This morning, I logged onto cbsnews.com, as I nearly always do, to see what was up.  Pictures of a bomb blast in Nigeria caught my eye.  The first picture was of three men carrying an injured woman away from the building.  I looked closer.

Was I seeing what I thought I was?

Had CBS *really* posted a picture of a woman, sans underwear, such that one could see her genitals?

Yep.

The picture has since been edited -- it is an up-close shot now of her face and the men around her, and is now fourth in the gallery, rather than first --  but I cannot help but wonder if the original picture would have *ever* been posted by a major news network had the woman been white.

Somebody would have said, 'Gosh, I don't think we can post that picture'.

A friend in the business told me that that kind of picture is NEVER posted, regardless of race, that it was an "oops" and that surely some editor would see it and take it down.  (Which appears to be pretty much what happened.)

But, really -- race and gender seem to be at play here.  When is the last time you saw a picture of a white woman's naked crotch posted by a major news network?  Or a picture of a penis (of any race)?  Seriously.  CBS isn't TMZ.

I get that mistakes happen and that I probably cannot possibly understand how stressful it is to get the news out and be first.

But honestly, had I been in that newsroom, I would have said something.

I could post the cached version of the picture, but I won't, for the same reason it shouldn't have been posted in the first place.

Dignity.