Penguins caught photoshopping masks on fans in attendance at game
Call it a sign on the times we're living in. The Pittsburgh Penguins have formally welcomed fans back at games taking place at PPG Paints Arena in a limited capacity. There are rules in place if you'd like to attend. One of those is that you wear your mask at all times unless eating or drinking. This can be a difficult thing to police. But, it looks like the team took some extra digital measures to ensure all fans mouths and noses were completely covered when posting pictures on its social media accounts.
The discrepancies were first noticed by Taylor Haase, a reporter who was looking for a photo from the Pittsburgh game from Getty Images, a supplier of stock images, editorial photography, video and music for those willing to pay a fee. Here's a Tweet of what she found. Don't worry, we'll post the full size images below.
In case that's hard to see, here's the photo the Penguins put out on Twitter:
No issues there. Everyone is wearing their mask over their nose and mouth. However, here's the original picture from Getty Images:
There are at least three people in the original photo on the right-hand side not wearing their masks properly. Another in the top-right was not wearing a mask at all and her head was cropped out of the picture the Pens Tweeted out. According to Haase, there were no pictures on Getty Images where everyone shown in the stands were properly wearing their masks.
To be fair, it was so widespread that there isn't a single Getty picture to choose from that didn't have any issues there. Taylor Haase (@TaylorHaasePGH) March 4, 2021
I get why the team did it. They are trying to avoid some type of backlash. However, this just seems ridiculous and they had to realize someone would notice it eventually.
As first reported by @TaylorHaasePGH, the @penguins photoshopping proper mask wearing onto people is just ludicrous pandemic theater. pic.twitter.com/7VsHfVRAYV Hemal Jhaveri (@hemjhaveri) March 4, 2021
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YESTERDAY
JUNE 6, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Mitch Marner | 3 | 1 | 4 | |
| Tomas Hertl | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jordan Staal | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Shea Theodore | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Brayden McNabb | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Taylor Hall | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jordan Martinook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Andrei Svechnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jackson Blake | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Seth Jarvis | - | 1 | 1 | |
| William Karlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Eric Robinson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jaccob Slavin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Logan Stankoven | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||