I'm no photoshop expert, but surely SOMEONE at an international news agency could take one look at this photo and know it was fake?
Reuters news agency admitted on Sunday that one of its photographers had digitally altered a photograph of an Israeli attack on Lebanon on Saturday, showing more smoke than was actually present. The photograph, as initially published, showed an aerial view of Beirut after an IAF attack, with two large pillars of smoke rising over the city. The caption read: Smoke billows from burning buildings destroyed during an overnight Israeli air raid on Beirut's suburbs. The agency has since withdrawn the photograph, issued an apology and released the unaltered picture. Its public relations department said the photographer had been suspended until the investigation was completed. Reuters was notified of the alteration by American bloggers who noticed repeating patterns within the smoke plumes, indicating that part of the image was duplicated several times.
The scene was photographed by Adnan Hajj, who had also photographed the aftermath of the Israeli attack on Kana last week, in which the Lebanese initially claimed 58 fatalities, but could later only confirm 28.
Important to note that the "Qana Massacre" is now the reason many are giving for their support of Hezbollah. One picture is worth a thousand lies, I suppose.
2 comments:
Wow! I thought I was back at the CRP blog for a minute! Same template! Anyway, Enhanced News Photography is nothing new. We've seen it before and we'll see it again. I know a couple of 12 year old kids who photoshop rings around these embellished pictures. I guess the average citizen is too dumb to realize they're looking at a phony photo--- is that it? Why even bother dressing up a picture if you're going to do it so crudely? Why not take a sabbatical and immerse yourself in image manipulation software for a year or two and THEN come back and doctor the pix!
Actually, this is shameful.
Don't think for a second that the average person would accept this picture. Anyone, anyone with decent eyesight would recognize the picture has been doctored.
It's sad when I can even tell you what tool was used to alter it. It's the rubber stamp, a tool that in class, they told us was the stamp on our pink slip if we were ever caught using it on the job.
Alas, I guess being a fraud is a lot more tolerable than it used to be, especially when you're reporting in a warzone.
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