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| Fifth Column | |
| Reuters admits altering Beirut photo | |
| 2006-08-06 | |
| by Yaakov Lappin, YNet News A Reuters photograph of smoke rising from buildings in Beirut has been withdrawn after coming under attack by American web logs. The blogs accused Reuters of distorting the photograph to include more smoke and damage.
In the message, Reuters said that "photo editing software was improperly used on this image. A corrected version will immediately follow this advisory. We are sorry for any inconvience." . . . Earlier, Charles Johnson, of the Little Green Footballs blog, which has exposed a previous attempt at fraud by a major American news corporation, wrote : "This Reuters photograph shows blatant evidence of manipulation. Notice the repeating patterns in the smoke; this is almost certainly caused by using the Photoshop “clone” tool to add more smoke to the image." . . . The Sports Shooter web forum, used by professional photographers, also examined the photo, with many users concluding that the image has been doctored. "I'll second the cloned smoke...but it looks so obvious that I don't know how the photographer could have gotten away with it," wrote one user. . . . Score another one for the bloggers in pajamas! | |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #18 See iceberg - tip of |
| Posted by: DMFD 2006-08-06 23:38 |
| #17 xbalanke , bwahahahahahaha! Good 'un! |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-08-06 19:49 |
| #16 [liquid spew alert] Via LGF: Here's the first draft of the doctored photo. |
| Posted by: xbalanke 2006-08-06 19:44 |
| #15 Fraud and fakery in reporting is not an "inconvenience", Sir, it is a travesty. Author, author! My only quibble is how indistinguishable "travesty" is becoming from outright treason. Back in the Soviet era, two of the major newspapers were Pravda (Truth) and Izvestia (News). This reminds me very little of a great old joke: Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Atilla the Hun and Napolean Bonaparte are all standing on the Kremlin's balcony watching the Soviets' annual Mayday military parade. Alexander looks at the rocket launchers passing by and exclaims, "With fire arrows like that all Asia would have been mine!" Caesar glances down at the tanks and shouts how, "With chariots like those, Rome would never have fallen to the Goths!" Atilla the Hun espies the artillery rolling past and announces how, "All Europe would have fallen before me with such catapults!" Naoplean looks down at a Pravda newspaper rack and mutters, "If only I'd had that, no one would ever have found out about Waterloo!" |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-08-06 19:23 |
| #14 "I also know from 30 years of experience in this business that you can't get competitive journalists to participate in the kind of (staging) experience that is being described." That is why they have their own camera men and tour guides to neatly package the propaganda. You aren't too likely to make those Anderson Cooper admitions with the Hiz Tour guides standing there. Notice he isn't in Beirut anymore. I think that old saying was more flat. " There is no truth in pravda and no news in Isvestia" Which brings me to my Soviet joke. How many soviets to change a lightbulb ? Doesn't matter , new bulb won't work either. |
| Posted by: J. D. Lux 2006-08-06 19:18 |
| #13 Some have compared the current situation with the press to the American Civil war, when the press was often hostile to Union efforts. I think that that analogy misses the mark. Since the arrival of the telegraph and the birth of the modern newspaper, I cannot think of a single incidence where the Western press (there certainly were similar situations in East Europe between the wars when Facist or Communist sympathizers/agents infiltrated the press organs there) has been so thoroughly infiltrated and compromised by enemy agents. Photos are and articles provided by Arab nationalist (Ba'athist) or Islamist stringers are being published by editors with no effort to determine whether of not they are truthful or propaganda. Previously, only individuals had been compromised. Walter Duranty is a well documented case and William Schirer, in Berlin Diary, points to several jounralists that he thought had been corrupted by the Nazis. We have put US service members on trial for capital crimes based on the testimony of obvious enemy stringers, photographers and spokesmen. Our enemies can now reach into the innermost parts of our system to attack and destroy. This is unprecedented. Any nation, society, or group that so utterly fails to recognize and protect it's own self interest, is doomed to being attacked and destroyed both from within and without by some other grouping that is fully aware of its own interests. I can only hope that it is the old MSM that dies and not Western civilization itself. |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2006-08-06 18:37 |
| #12 “... photo editing software was improperly used on this image. (DAMMIT THEY CAUGHT US)A corrected version will immediately follow this advisory. (YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO CATCH IT SO EASILY) We are sorry for any inconvience...” |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2006-08-06 16:35 |
| #11 #10 gorb: "I wonder what they have to say now. 'Oh, this is different!'" Kinda. But it's "Oh, this is different - this time you found proof!" |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-08-06 14:40 |
| #10 "We confess, we dunnit. We'll try to do a better job next time." Do I recall some news executive type being completely offended at the idea of journalists being complicit in spinning any photograhic evidence? Such as the "massacre" in Qana? I think I do . . . . I wonder what they have to say now. "Oh, this is different!" |
| Posted by: gorb 2006-08-06 14:13 |
| #9 Back in the Soviet era, two of the major newspapers were Pravda (Truth) and Izvestia (News). They were the target of a folky proverb that seems just as appropriate today: In truth there is no news, in news there is no truth. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2006-08-06 13:45 |
| #8 Michelle Malkin reminds us what the newservice mouthpieces said about the possibility that Qana photos were staged: "It's hard to imagine how someone sitting in an air-conditioned office or broadcast studio many thousands of miles from the scene can decide what occurred on the ground with any degree of accuracy," said Kathleen Carroll, AP's senior vice president and executive editor. Carroll said in addition to personally speaking with photo editors, "I also know from 30 years of experience in this business that you can't get competitive journalists to participate in the kind of (staging) experience that is being described." |
| Posted by: Angie Schultz 2006-08-06 11:39 |
| #7 Rope. Tree. Journalist. Some assembly required. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2006-08-06 11:11 |
| #6 There is the islamofacist enemy and the fourth estate enemy. Lies, lies and damn lies. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2006-08-06 10:37 |
| #5 Reuters has a new name, Scrappleface! |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2006-08-06 09:48 |
| #4 Fraud and fakery are not a travesty, they're journalism. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-08-06 09:39 |
| #3 We are sorry for any inconvience Fraud and fakery in reporting is not an "inconvenience", Sir, it is a travesty. |
| Posted by: Thinemp Whimble2412 2006-08-06 09:20 |
| #2 And you got across [again] that MSM is basically a fraud. Just another commercail enterprise which operates on hype and con to sale its product. |
| Posted by: Unaitle Elmegum6850 2006-08-06 09:00 |
| #1 We wuz just tryin' to get across our message, that war is bad. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2006-08-06 08:48 |