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'CAUGHT!': NBC slammed for editing Lia Thomas' photo to make her look more feminine

The allegedly doctored picture removed facial lines, skin discolorations, and red impressions on her face caused by goggles

A picture of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas was manipulated to make her appear more feminine on The Today Show that NBC airs, experts have claimed. “The edited image has definitely undergone some sort of softening and smoothing effect,” Jonathan Gallegos, a former White House director of digital content for President Trump, told New York Post. “It’s clear this job was not done by a professional. This level of skin smoothing is a hallmark sign of an amateur job.”

The picture of Thomas, which was allegedly doctored, was also posted on Twitter. The edited picture removed facial lines, skin discolorations, and red impressions on Thomas' face caused by goggles. Her adam’s apple was blurred. However, the show later ran the original photo. 

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NBC has been blasted by media critics who said that the move was unethical. “In this day and age, news organizations should know better,” said Curtis Houck of the Media Research Center. “My first reaction to this was it harkened back to CBS altering Katie Couric’s appearance so she appeared slimmed down or perhaps the most infamous and egregious example of Time magazine altering O.J. Simpson’s skin color.” Accusing NBC of trying to “pull the wool over the eyes of the public” by running the doctored image, Abigail Shrier, an author who has written critically on trans issues, said, "NBC is protecting a cheater by cheating. Doctoring photographs is a violation of everything journalism stands for."

A lot of controversies have surrounded the transgender swimmer in recent times. Thomas, 22, is a transgender swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania. Thomas competed for three years at Penn as a man, Will Thomas, before the transition. At a meet on November 20 last year, Thomas had a 1:43:47 time in the 200-meter freestyle and 4:35:06 in the 500-meter freestyle. These times, which were records for Penn, would have placed Thomas second and third, respectively in the NCAA Women’s Championships. Thomas breaking women’s records has, like always, raised questions about how fair it is when people who are born as men compete as women. There has been a lot of debate surrounding what is fair on the field, the court, the track, and in the pool. 

Recently, a member of the University of Pennsylvania women’s swim team said that teammates are uncomfortable changing in the locker room in transgender swimmer Lia Thomas's presence. Thomas has reportedly said that she dates women. “It’s definitely awkward because Lia still has male body parts and is still attracted to women,” the swimmer said.

"Media is doing itself no favours"

NBC has also been slammed by social media users. "CAUGHT! NBC caught for Softening Lia Thomas pics for More Feminine Look ME: An outright admission that something is "wrong" with Lia! They know...which means they are intentionally putting real women at a horrible discriminatory disadvantage. Does NBC give women "softer" looks?" one user wrote on Twitter. "Dishonesty of mainstream media is an everyday occurrence. The @TodayShow softening the features of biologically male NCAA swimmer, Will (Lia) Thomas photo, to appear more feminine. What's next, PShop images to appear more or less violent per suspects race/gender? That's next," another user commented. 

"Ironic we slate RT, yet this week we have the BBC and other UK outlets manipulation of johnson "alonegate" VT to NBC across the pond photoshop lia Thomas coming out of pool to look more feminine, Media is doing itself no favours," one user said, while another wrote, "The ‘Today Show’ intentionally altered photo by softening features. Just wow!" "NBC takes heat for airbrush of Lia Thomas. So you can see they are really trying to push their narrative just like how they did it to Joe Rogan mainstream media is trash!!" one user said.