"We need to pick our fights better. "
Better safe then sorry I say. And "strippers entertaining the troops" is far more controversial then "entertainers dancing or singing for the troops". In such a case, airbrushing a microphone out of the picture makes all the difference.
Again, I defer to those who are photo experts and if they believe that this kind of "exposure anomaly" can happen..then I wil back off.
But in the larger scheme of things I think we are only beginning to uncover the mountain of manipulated photos that exist in the media on any given day.
Better right than embarrassed. And-- nobody ever said it was "strippers", And-- the presence or absence of a microphone cord makes no difference whatsoever.
Save yer ammo for the real enemy.