Newspaper takes heat for photo of lone female candidate

Brianna Wu, best known for calling attention to misogyny in the gaming industry — and being crucified for it — has a new campaign. She’s running for Congress and she’s calling out the misogyny of the media, specifically the Boston Globe.

She tweeted on Wednesday that the Globe made her look less dignified than her opponents when it chose her picture.

She’s got a right to be upset; she doesn’t think it’s a respectful photo compared to two white guys looking like two typical white guys running for office.

But it’s only part of the story.

The picture she presents isn’t what the Globe published in its primary guide. It’s what some social media editor chose for a Facebook post. Still outrageous, for sure.

But the suggestion that the Globe editorial staff assembling the primary guide used the photo while ignoring the professionally-shot photographs to depict her is incorrect.

The collage she presents wasn’t used in either the online or printed versions of the paper’s primary guide. On the cover, she’s shown in the very dress she wanted to be shown in. However, it’s a TV screen grab where the other candidates are depicted with photos they provided.

Why? A reporter at another newspaper in Boston says that’s the one Wu has been providing, although she didn’t use it because the candidate doesn’t own the rights to it.

As for the profile itself, she looks like a serious candidate in it and the tweets that promoted it.

Why the social media editor originally decided to use the picture in the collage on Facebook (since changed) is open to debate.

The Globe isn’t talking.