Interesting sidebar about “Face-of-Obamacare” woman

I saw a brief interview with the woman yesterday afternoon. She was put into the roll of “comic relief” because her image was used on the home page of the Obamacare site. If she was bullied about it, that’s wrong, but there is something a bit strange about her story.

This was in the ABC News piece by Abby Phillip yesterday afternoon, as captured by Steve Gilbert over at Sweetness & Light.

The saga of the photo started innocuously enough. Seeking free family photographs, Adriana emailed a contact at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency responsible for the Affordable Care Act’s rollout, about having photos of her and her family taken in exchange for allowing the photos to be used to market the new health care law.

She was never paid.

This morning, that section reads as follows.

The saga of the photo started innocuously enough. Adriana responded to an email from someone at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency responsible for the Affordable Care Act’s rollout, about having photos of her and her family taken for free in exchange for allowing the photos to be used to market the new health care law.

So which version is the truth? I know this is not a grand conspiracy, but did the original story make the woman – no need to mention her name here – look a bit strange? I mean, who the heck calls up a federal government agency – specifically the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) – looking for free photographs to be taken of her family?

The ABC News piece does not mention a correction.

Was their someone from CMS who was responsible to send out emails looking for models willing to work for free? Why couldn’t they go buy a few images from Shutterstock or iStockPhoto or something?

Again, this is just an interesting sidebar. If the woman had not gone public – I’m betting we’ll see her again – her light would have faded out. She just ended up cranking up the dimmer switch for herself.