This just in. They're running scared. Very scared...
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002985833
'Wash Post' Ombud: Lebanon Photos Not Manipulated There
By E&P Staff
Published: August 12, 2006 4:10 PM ET
NEW YORK In a column for the Sunday editon, Deborah Howell, ombudsman for The Washington Post, reveals that a review of the published photos from the Middle East conflict found that apparently none had been manipulated.
Bloggers who supported Israel's widescale bombing in Lebanon and others have raised questions about such manipulaton after two photos by a Reuters freelancer were found to be doctored last week.
But Howell's review of war photos published in The Post "didn't show any obvious manipulation," she writes.
Several readers questioned the July 31 photo of the 18 dead at Qana, mostof them children, and said they'd read that the photo had been staged. But Post photographer Michael Robinson-Chavez who was there told Howell, "Everyone was dead, many of them children. Nothing was set up. There was no way photos could have been altered with a dozen photographers there."
Howell writes that along with two photo editors she reviewed many photos from Qana. "Only one photo, not published, looked staged -- of a rescue worker holding a dead child up for the camera." It was taken by the same photographer fired by Reuters this week.
Beyond dispute, in any case, is that several hundred Lebanese civilians have been killed in the bombing.
Post photo editors are "cautious" about Middle East photos, Howell explains. She quotes Joe Elbert, assistant managing editor for photos: "You can't take things at face value. Some freelance photographers lack journalistic training. They are not operating under the same standards as most photographers throughout the world."
Post policy, like that at other news sources, prohibits altering photos.
E&P Staff (letters@editorandpublisher.com)