Lebanon photos: Take a closer look (In the LA Times???)

LA Times ^ | 8/12/06 | Tim Rutten

[pissant]

THE controversy this week over Reuters' distribution of digitally manipulated, falsely labeled and — probably — staged photos of the fighting in Lebanon hasn't been nearly as large as it should have been.

Credit for bringing the sordid business to light goes to Charles Johnson, a musician and Los Angeles-based blogger, who operates a hard-edged right wing website unfathomably called Little Green Footballs. Last Saturday, Reuters, which is headquartered in London, transmitted two photographs by one of its regular Lebanese freelance photographers, Adnan Hajj, whose work for the agency has appeared in many American newspapers since 1993. An anonymous tipster reportedly drew Johnson's attention to the photos, and he immediately recognized that one purporting to show the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on Beirut had been digitally enhanced. It subsequently emerged that another image allegedly showing an Israeli fighter launching multiple air-to-ground missiles also had been altered using the common Photoshop computer program.

Johnson quickly posted a denunciation of the phony photo. Within 18 hours, Reuters killed the manipulated images, fired Hajj and removed 920 of his photos from its digital archives. Paul Holmes, the Reuters editor responsible for standards and ethics, told the New York Times that all the withdrawn images were being reviewed "to see if any others have been improperly altered." He also said the news agency was investigating how the photos slipped by its editors but noted that on the day in question, "we published 2,000 photos. It was handled by someone on a very busy day at a more junior level than we would wish for in ideal circumstances."

[alloysteel]

"...hard-edged right wing..."

At last, some descriptive adjectives comeing out of the LAT.

I can live with that.

[livius]

Maybe a bit of self-preservation has kicked in...and then, there are some lefties who are just seriously deluded, rather than being knowingly committed to supporting the enemy, and he may be one of them. Still, it's definitely good news that he was objective enough to take a look at this.

[Hildy]

Why IS that website called Little Green Footballs???

[pollyannaish]

Actually, you can alter them somewhat in the same way you would alter a photograph in the dark roomf or things such as contrast and lightness/darkness.

Plus, iirc, a slight amount of color correction—something you also do in a traditional darkroom. So yes, photojournalists can properly alter a picture.

They can not, however, add or subtract content either digitally or in "real life." That wouldn't be improper it would be WRONG. ; )

[Grampa Dave]

This little admission is an old trick of the Dinosaur Fishwrap.

Print an article like this and hide it in the Saturday paper in section 5 throuh 8.

[vinwire]

I understand that "little green footballs" was given its name by Mrs. Calabash,
(wherever she is.)

[cydcharisse]

I wonder how many people under the age of about 60 "get" that reference!

[Dov in Houston]

Several people have asked Charles that same question and it has never been answered. I guess it's his little secret

[concentric circles]

Rutten writes about "The Media" in the Calendar section of the paper, a section self described as "Arts, Entertainment, Style, and Culture."

He tries to address serious issues regarding the media and his musings inevitably reveal a strong liberal bias.

Take this excerpt from today's column for instance, "...It's worth taking the time to go there (pajamas media.com) and to click on the link giddily labeled "Reutersgate." Make what you will of the analysis, much of which is feverish, sneering and tending toward the mechanistically conspiratorial..."

The unspoken implication is that since this is the land of blogs and internet analysis it is lower class and dirty but a serious journalist has to go where the story is so Rutten does his readers a favor by slumming and investigating the arguments.

His piece includes the following in the concluding remarks, "... Johnson and his colleagues have done the serious news media a service..." Of course, since his ideas appear in ink, he is a contributor to the serious news media.

He could prove that he is serious if he did more analysis of the Los Angeles Times' coverage of the war against militant Islam in all it's guises. For starters, he could tell us all about the Times' coverage of the interception by the Tanzanians of a shipment of uranium 238 from the Congo to Iran. How was the story covered by the paper? What analysis was there regarding the impact this would have on U.S. policy toward Iran's efforts to produce atomic warheads? How does it affect European policy? What was the Time's treatment of the impact this story has on the domestic political front and the democrats' positions on the current administration's policies toward Iran and the war on terror?

Will Rutten be as silent as the paper he works for?

[BonnieJ]

Most photos for news seem to be staged these days anyway.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Placing a story (critical of the Clinton administration) in the LA Times, deep inside the Friday or Saturday edition, was a favorite tactic to "print" the story (for reference later to show it WAS printed) but without the publicity of the weekend rounds of the TV analysis and exposure.

A story running Friday is too late to be in the TV news on Friday, since the TV news lives only from the NY Times leads: sent much earlier than the LA Times. Also, the Saturday/Sunday TV analysis programming is set by the time the story is released. But by Monday, IF the story is noticed at all by the MSM, it is dismissed as "old news" and "last week's news" - "we don't want to repeat that old story today."

[kjo]

Yeah, but at least it's a story.

[lilylangtree]

Salute and kudos to the person(s) who exposed this horrible fraud perpetrated upon the public consciousness yet once again by the mainstream media. Truth in Journalism = LIES

[kik5150]

Here is the Doctored photo as it ran on the front page of the LA times. The actual photo is on the right.

Here is the Doctored photo as it ran on the front page of the LA times. The actual photo is on the right.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for reminding us of the late Friday or Saturday mini article re the sins of the Clintoons buried in section Z on page 12 of a 20 page section.

[PajamaTruthMafia]

Bump