Yesterday, QuarryGirl posted an article on her blog about the vegan magazine/ezine VegNews. A little bit of digging had unearthed an unsettling trend; many of the photos displayed on the website and in print were seemingly stockpiled photographs of dishes containing meat, dairy and eggs.
This in itself is a little odd for a vegan publication, particularly one with a reasonable following. We could debate the ethics of a vegan publication using meat pictures for hours. However, I understand that in business, everyone cuts corners here and there to save a bit of money. It's how business works. What's not right, in my mind, is the unethical and unprofessional way in which they handled themselves when doing it. Firstly, none of the stockpiled photographs were credited, despite being used for proper publications. Copyright infringement. Secondly, when called out on it, VegNews' initial response was to delete all publicly made comments about the mistakes that they could access, and ignore all direct contact. Childish and unprofessional. Thirdly, when you take into account that the photographs used were not of the recipes they were printed alongside, you have to wonder if the recipes were even tested, and how difficult it would have been to take a few amateur shots if they were. All their actions seem to suggest that they were wilfully using the pictures and taking every precaution to hide it.
Unfortunately, in the age of the internet, nothing is secret for long. I was never a subscriber to VegNews, but now, I don't think I ever will be.
QG's Article
No comments:
Post a Comment