Skip to content

The Boston Globe's photo selection gave a congressional candidate pause

US elections August 29, 2018
Brianna Wu, a candidate for the eighth congressional district of Massachusetts, called out the publication for using an old and unprofessional-looking photo of her in their election guide. They have since changed the image and issued an apology.

Angry. publishes a guide to the election. They choose pictures of my opponents wearing suits. They pick one of me from Gamergate where I’m wearing a t-shirt and have bright anime hair. I literally did a photo shoot with them wearing a dress and heels a week ago.

547 replies 5,171 retweets 14,769 likes

I have dressed professionally every day for 2 years to present myself as a serious candidate. Hair done professionally, down and straight. Natural color. Heels. I have four versions of the same dress, I wear it so much. It was 95 degrees today and I wore that canvassing.

33 replies 408 retweets 4,117 likes

I am so disappointed in the for this. You have a responsibility to represent me accurately to voters. Picking a pic from when I ran an indie game studio is not fair journalism.

89 replies 729 retweets 6,673 likes

New problem: in fixing the original pic, why did choose a poorly-lit, faraway full-body shot of but headshots of her competitors?

24 replies 146 retweets 817 likes
11 replies 48 retweets 364 likes
Replying to and

Now it's a photo of her looking down at her phone. 😐

3 replies 14 retweets 252 likes
Replying to and

Like, don't they have a proper headshot? The photos ARE getting better every time, though. At least she's not pixelated like the guy who looks like this

7 retweets 192 likes

Moreover, it looks like they didn't even include your name in their metadata! Which means it's harder to find this article when looking for you on search engines...

9 replies 143 retweets 929 likes

I also had to ask to add my name to the metadata. If a voter Googled this race, “Stephen Lynch” would come up. “Stephen F. Lynch” would come up. Brianna Wu would not come up. For some incomprehensible reason, they put this story in ’s Google results.

12 replies 97 retweets 478 likes
Replying to and

They are still blowing it with the picture. You are cropped out on mobile.

5 replies 31 retweets 210 likes

Fix this — When you view on mobile, we see instead of Brianna Wu.

2 replies 40 retweets 170 likes

This is one of my pet peeves of coverage regardless of party - female candidates' clothing is almost always described in coverage, I've also had editors put a female candidate's age in a piece and leave out the male candidate's age.

50 retweets 207 likes

Wow. I heavily dislike Brianna Wu but goddamn thats some bullshit . Shes plenty capable of unhinged yelling in professional garb, same as the men.

3 replies 16 retweets 98 likes

Unconventional newcomer candidate Brianna Wu has quickly learned there’s a reason for some traditional campaign strategies, such as hiring seasoned political operatives.

17 replies 9 retweets 37 likes

Brianna Wu, best known for speaking out against misogyny in the gaming industry, is taking on the most conservative member of the state’s congressional delegation, US Representative Stephen Lynch.

8 replies 14 retweets 56 likes

On the choice of photo for in the 's primary guide:

27 replies 27 retweets 70 likes

The issued an apology for the whole mess. Feel free to read it and draw your own conclusion. I do want to say, it’s rather stunning that a major paper in the US automates HTML metadata in 2018. That’s not doing anyone any favors, not the canidates and not the Globe.

25 replies 106 retweets 569 likes