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| Media bias in Lebanon: Rubes fall for the oldest trick in the book |
| 2006-08-10 |
| By Jules Crittenden Boston Herald City Editor The lesson of the Reuters photo fakery scandal is nothing any hapless once-bitten carnival mark couldnÂ’t have warned them about. Discredited photographer Adnan Hajj was employing the oldest and worst-kept secret in any con artistÂ’s bag of tricks: People will see what they want to see. They will believe what they want to believe. Hajj used Adobe Photoshop to make smoke from an Israeli airstrike on Beirut bigger. He did it in very clumsy, obvious fashion ... like something youÂ’d see on a stage set that is stylized and intended to be suggestive of more smoke. Maybe he did it just to make his photo more dramatic. Maybe, as a number of bloggers whoÂ’ve scrutinized his work suggest, he did it for ideological reasons, to denigrate the hated Israelis and give heroic Jew-killing Hezbollah a boost. Photo editors need big drama, wreckage, emotional faces, things that will carry a sense of urgency and attract the eye of readers. Freelancers like Hajj are paid per picture, and need money. Those factors may explain why, as noted by bloggers such as www.freedomszone.com, www.littlegreenfootballs.com, www.hotair.com, www.riehlworldview.com, photos of the same easily identifiable Lebanese wreckage were posted by Reuters and the Associated Press weeks apart, sometimes with the same people in them, with no suggestion that it was anything but new wreckage. It would explain why HajjÂ’s photos of a bridge strike showed the same individuals running in one direction, then in the other, with great urgency, but with greatly divergent damage in frames of the same area, and no smoke, though an airstrike is said to have just occured. Hajj and others may have figured out how to chisel more money out of the gullible western news agencies. Perhaps with the side benefit of adding to global outrage over the suffering of the Lebanese people. Hezbollah also knows that people see what they want to see. That would explain why, as these blogs and others have pointed out, different news photographers who arrived at Qana hours apart, have similar photos of the same bodies being carried out of the wreckage and loaded onto ambulances. Photos of the dead are important. People around the world need to know about the realities of war, no matter how they feel about the justification of a particular war. In America, police, medics and firefighters usually shield the dead from the view of news cameras whenever possible. But it would appear that Hezbollah, or worse, Lebanese rescue workers, decided the best use of a dead child was to be dragged around for propaganda purposes. Now the bloggers have noted that several New York Times photos appear to show the same man walking into some wreckage who is later shown as a bombing victim being carried out. The bloggers were drawn to this because they noticed that, unlike anyone and anything that has been subjected to an urban bombing, the "body" was clean. It wasnÂ’t covered with dust ... except on the hands, where the "victim" may have been rumaging around in the rubble. ThatÂ’s when the facial similarity with the perfectly healthy, similarly shirtless man was noticed. Rank or perhaps willful ignorance of the realities of warfare is also demonstrated by photos such as a car allegedly hit by an Israeli airstrike that looks like itÂ’s been in a bad fender bender, with no sign of the kind of blast damage a car hit by a missile or bomb would have sustained. YouÂ’d think after handling three years of war photos out of Iraq, not to mention the many wars of preceding decades, photo editors might be more conversant with the particulars of the subject. The question is, why would photo editors who presumeably are looking at a chronological series of photos from any given scene, fall for tricks that have been uncovered by amateurs? Because people see what they want to see. Magicians and scammers have known this since the time of the pharoahs. Psychological studies have confirmed it is true. In Lebanon, where Hezbollah has made widespread use of human shields, firing missiles on Israel from positions dug in next to UN observer posts and within inhabited villages, what the international press has wanted to see and has reported is evidence of Israeli war crimes. Until now, Hezbollah and photographers like Hajj have been able to ensure that they will. Everyone in the news business gets taken for a ride sooner or later. ItÂ’s an occupational hazard. What is surprising is the scale of it in Lebanon. And what is tragic about this is, as a Boston Herald photo editor noted, editors everywhere can no longer trust the pictures from Lebanon. The public cannot know what is staged and what is real. They cannot know the true scope of the devastation that HezbollahÂ’s aggression against Israel and its cynical tactics have brought on the Lebanese people. The con artists have shafted themselves and their own people with their cheap tricks. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #1 "The con artists have shafted themselves and their own people with their cheap tricks." GOOD (if true). Serves 'em right. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-08-10 12:31 |