920 Fakes! Way to go Al-Reuters. 
Posted on 08/07/2006 3:10:52 PM PDT by RightOnTheLeftCoast
Edited on 08/07/2006 5:13:46 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Reuters withdraws all photos by freelancer
Aug 7, 12:20 PM (ET)
LONDON (Reuters) - Reuters withdrew all 920 photographs by a freelance Lebanese photographer from its database on Monday after an urgent review of his work showed he had altered two images from the conflict between Israel and the armed group Hizbollah.
Global Picture Editor Tom Szlukovenyi called the measure precautionary but said the fact that two of the images by photographer Adnan Hajj had been manipulated undermined trust in his entire body of work.
"There is no graver breach of Reuters standards for our photographers than the deliberate manipulation of an image," Szlukovenyi said in a statement.
"Reuters has zero tolerance for any doctoring of pictures and constantly reminds its photographers, both staff and freelance, of this strict and unalterable policy."
The news and information agency announced the decision in an advisory note to its photo service subscribers. The note also said Reuters had tightened editing procedures for photographs from the conflict and apologized for the case.
Removing the images from the Reuters database excludes them from future sale.
Reuters ended its relationship with Hajj on Sunday after it found that a photograph he had taken of the aftermath of an Israeli air strike on suburban Beirut had been manipulated using Photoshop software to show more and darker smoke rising from buildings.
An immediate enquiry began into Hajj's other work.
It established on Monday that a photograph of an Israeli F-16 fighter over Nabatiyeh, southern Lebanon and dated Aug 2, had also been doctored to increase the number of flares dropped by the plane from one to three.
"Manipulating photographs in this way is entirely unacceptable and contrary to all the principles consistently held by Reuters throughout its long and distinguished history. It undermines not only our reputation but also the good name of all our photographers," Szlukovenyi said.
"This doesn't mean that every one of his 920 photographs in our database was altered. We know that not to be the case from the majority of images we have looked at so far but we need to act swiftly and in a precautionary manner."
The two altered photographs were among 43 that Hajj filed directly to the Reuters Global Pictures Desk since the start of the conflict on July 12 rather than through an editor in Beirut, as was the case with the great majority of his images.
Filing drills have been tightened in Lebanon and only senior staff will now edit pictures from the Middle East on the Global Pictures Desk, with the final check undertaken by the Editor-in-Charge, Reuters said.
Hajj worked for Reuters as a non-staff contributing photographer from 1993 until 2003 and again since April 2005. Most of his work was in sports photography, much of it outside Lebanon.
Hajj was not in Beirut on Monday and was not responding to calls. He told Reuters on Sunday that the image of the Israeli air strike on Beirut had dust marks which he had wanted to remove.
Questions about the accuracy of the photograph arose after it appeared on news Web sites on Saturday.
Several blogs, including a number which accuse the media of distorted coverage of the Middle East conflict, said the photograph had been doctored.
I saw that lib Hennigan, something like that? Saw him on a Fox show. One guest was lambasting Reuters for not realizing this guy's photos were fake until they got caught red-handed
Then Hennigan gets all with an attitude. I paraphrase..."Come on," he said, "Reuters did everything right. They pulled the photo, then they pulled all of the guy's photos. This beating up on Reuters is a bit over the top."
See, it's people like this that make me want to slap them silly.
Reuters' photo editors have known right along that this guy was providing fake photos. Don't tell me different, call me names or sue me. Comes a time when, like juries all across America, when you just have to decide if you're hearing the truth or a lie and react accordingly. To sit around and wait for the truth to come out is a waste of a good life.
Now as to why Reuters is putting out fake photos is a mystery. But I believe that someone in that company is on some rich oil money payroll.
I have no proof of this. Hey, I think the same thing of the NY Times.
Money buys anything. And the thugs and thieves of the Mideast have enough oil money, indeed, to actually purchase and manipulate public opinion.
It's my story and I'm sticking to it.
920 Fakes! Way to go Al-Reuters.
Looks like he tried to photoshop 'cinders' into the picture to make the guy look like he was actually in the photo. Hell, some of the 'cinders' are perfectly square and round.
And not leaving burn marks on his jeans.
But news is another story.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1678470/posts
See post 224 on this thread
Later, Hadean says that his post was just a small contribution to the effort, however.
Crackerjack news outfit they got there!
REUTERS: angry because they were caught.
Exactly. It makes a person wonder if we can trust any pictures EVER shown of ANY war. Rueters was taking pictures during Vietnam too.
Nowadays I don't ever trust any images. I use photoshop and, therefore, know better.
A few years back, a Pulitzer was given back because a photo of a firefighter, taking a break from fighting California wildfires, was photographed dipping his head in a backyard pool and it was determined that the photo was staged.
I'm glad that PajamaTruthMafia is posting the 'here's the chronology' details for us!
I agree with cripplecreek. Reuters must take some of the blame.
It was pretty obvious that the first photo (of the smoke and buildings) was fake.
he's obviously very talented w/ Photoshop.
Chronology? Oh. Good. I'll have to find that.
I don't remember that but hope some FReeper can pull that story up.
It would be really interesting if it happened to be Reuters.
It's more likely that the photos fit Reuter's agenda -- anti-Israeli, anti-US, pro-Arab, pro-terrorist -- and that any photo graphically demonizing Israel or the US was grabbed and printed.
That blatantly and laughably photoshopped Beirut photo was so outrageously faked that it started a blog-swarm of scrutinizing other photos, and Reuters had no choice but to cover its posterior.
I doubt that Reuters even has a photo editor -- just some idiot who crops the photos for max visual impact.
MSM says, "Let's move on..."
NO.
This need to be played up & criticized in a manner equivalent to the manner in which the "Abu Ghraib" photos were explored/analyzed.
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