Posted on 09/27/2005 4:05:54 PM PDT by Brian Mosely
Now, let's take a closer look at this image.
By chance, I took a photo of the same girl just a few moments later. Looks practically identical, doesn't it?
But you might notice that my picture is lower resolution. That's because it's a zoomed-in portion of a much larger photograph. I cropped off the other parts of the picture to get a close-up of the girl.
But what would happen if I hadn't cropped off so much? Let's take a step backward and reveal what the San Francisco Chronicle didn't want you to see.
Here's the same photo without as much cropping, revealing more of the context. You can see that the girl's protest contingent also sported Palestinian flags and obscene placards.
Now let's take another step back.
Here's my full original photo, uncropped. Now we can see that the girl is just one of several teenagers, all wearing terrorist-style bandannas covering their faces.
But, as you'll notice, the bandannas are all printed with the same design. Was this a grassroots protest statement the teenagers had come up with all by themselves?
To find out, let's take a look at another photo in the series, taken at the same time:
Oops -- it looks like they're actually being stage-managed by an adult, who is giving them directions and guiding them toward the front of the march. But who is she?
The last picture in the series reveals all.
It turns out that the woman giving directions belongs to one of the Communist groups organizing the rally -- if her t-shirt is to be believed, since it depicts
the flag of Communist Vietnam, which has been frequently displayed by such groups at protest rallies in the U.S. for decades.
The San Francisco Chronicle featured the original photograph on its front page in order to convey a positive message about the rally -- perhaps that even politically aware teenagers were inspired to show up and rally for peace, sporting the message, "People of Color say 'No to War!'" And that served the Chronicle's agenda.
But this simple analysis reveals the very subtle but insidious type of bias that occurs in the media all the time. The Chronicle did not print an inaccuracy, nor did it doctor a photograph to misrepresent the facts. Instead, the Chronicle committed the sin of omission: it told you the truth, but it didn't tell you the whole truth.
Because the whole truth -- that the girl was part of a group of naive teenagers recruited by Communist activists to wear terrorist-style bandannas and carry Palestinian flags and obscene placards -- is disturbing, and doesn't conform to the narrative that the Chronicle is trying to promote. By presenting the photo out of context, and only showing the one image that suits its purpose, the Chronicle is intentionally manipulating the reader's impression of the rally, and the rally's intent.
Such tactics -- in the no-man's-land between ethical and unethical -- are commonplace in the media, and have been for decades. It is only now, with the advent of citizen journalism, that we can at last begin to see the whole story and realize that the public has been manipulated like this all along.
That is the kind of work which SHOULD be submitted for a Pulitzer prize but probably won't. Of all the worthless trash they give awards to, you just brought more enlightenment and understanding that 1000 NYT columnists. Kudos.
This is a really good photo essay, Brian. The way you steadily build your case is outstanding.
Them earrings on commie babe look pretty booooji to me.
Say it ain't so.
Wow! Good work.
MSM are worse than liars, they are tellers of half-truths, and distorters of the truth. A picture is indeed worth a thousand words; this is especially dangerous when the picture is dishonest.
The sad part is the fact that it's so predictable.
Great find! - suggest you send this to Drudge to see if he will also post a link - more folks need to see the bias going on daily!!
I can't claim credit for this. The Little Green Footballs operative "Zombie" did the work
out-freaking-standing
PING
Great job. Both the photographs and the direct and to the point writing of the essay.
Good work.
fyi
That's why I always say that the easiest way to prove press bias is to ask a person to attend some events or watch them on C-SPAN and then watch the mainstream press coverage of teh same event. If they aren't dead or lying, they can't help but to notice the bias it's so overt.
Great post, Brian!
Wow. This is truly enlightening. Thank you very much. I only wish there were a way to show this to a wider audience.
Excellent job.
Come have a look.....
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