Reuters Photoshops Beirut Photo

Lies, Damn Lies and Photos

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=21956_Reuters_Doctoring_Photos_from_Beirut&only
from JoeUser Forums
In the face of evidence presented at the Little Green Footballs blog site, Reuters has had to withdraw a photo that greatly exaggerated Israel's bombing of Beirut. The photo contained plumes of smoke and entire buildings that were "cloned" in Photoshop to exaggerate the severity of the damage.

The falsified image:



Go to Linkto see how it was uncovered.

Reuters retracted the image:




You have to ask why Reuters published this photo in the first place. The photo was taken by Adnan Hajj, who had previously doctored a photo of a dead child from Qana. That photo was also a fake.
politics
4,612 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
"Lies, damn lies and photos" is a Mark Twain allusion, for those who like footnotes.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
I've seen a lot from wire reporters lately that defies their claims of being bias-free. Heck, all you really have to do is read them. Their choice of words is often so purposely targeted that you know the subjective political opinion of the reporter.

I wonder how much of this has to do with the news channels, newspapers, and websites so often printing what they say verbatim instead of using them as a source and rewriting it. A lot of the time we in the blogosphere say "The LA Times says"... x, y, or z, but when you look at the byline, it is just a cut and paste from the AP or some other service.

There are also stories about this particular guy staging photos, telling protesters where to stand so he can get smoking buildings in the background, etc.
Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
Reuters has withdrawn the images and all other images by that photographer:

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Reuters withdrew all 920 photographs by a freelance Lebanese photographer from its database on Monday after a review of his work showed he had altered two images from the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. (See Link)

You would not know from their disclaimer that Reuters bowed to pressure from the blogging community:
"Reuters has zero tolerance for any doctoring of pictures and constantly reminds its photographers, both staff and freelance, of this strict and unalterable policy."

Reuters in the past refused to acknowledge that suicide bombings in Israel were acts of terrorism and has mis-reported (great exaggerated) death tolls from Israeli bombings. The toll from the Houla bombing was 1, not 40 as originally reported. (in fairness to Reuters, they accepted the word of the Lebanese PM, never checking the facts.)

Reuters is not the only one. AP is currently showing pictures of the same Muslim woman wailing outside of two different houses. As LGF notes, she must be the unluckiest homeowner in Beirut.
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
Reuters has withdrawn the images and all other images by that photographer:


Kind of like closing the barn door after the horse has already bolted.
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
...and then denied that it was open in the first place.

There is nothing new in this. In 2003, Reuters "won" HonestReporting.com's "Dishonest Reporting" Award, with AP receiving a Dishonorable Mention. There were many reasons cited, but the foremost was "Reuters refuses to use the term "terrorist" because (as global news editor Steven Jukes states) "one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter.""

I can understand an individual or even a political group taking such a stance. But when a news organization as powerful as Reuters or AP makes a decision like that, it is not behaving in a responsible manner. There is a difference between reporting the news and slanting the news to fit your views.

Honest Reporting reference: Link

About Reuters: Link
Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top
LGF is making a name for itself quite quickly! First Dan Rather, now this! Man, those guys are good!
Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top
Yeah, I heard about this at work; Jim Quinn (a local Pittsburgh guy), Limbaugh, Hannity....they were all over it.
I'm willing to bet there wasn't all that much coverage of this outrage in the MSM, though. I know I didn't see any (but then, the way I work it's hard to watch much news). They do tend to circle the wagons in such cases, though.

"terrorist" because (as global news editor Steven Jukes states) "one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter.""
--Kupe

And one man's noble, crusading reporter is another man's politically biased, lying, manipulative opportunist.
"Defining deviancy downward"....a phrase coined years ago by Daniel Patrick Moynihan. The media keeps coming up with new ways, and new terms, to make poor behavior seem acceptable. But only if they, the media itself, deem it so.

As for the pics of that woman, the unlucky two homeowner in Lebanon....I think I saw that second picture in "Night of the Living Dead".