Photography as a Weapon

New York Times ^ | August 11, 2008 | Errol Morris

[ricks_place]

You have your fear, which might become reality; and then you have Godzilla, who is reality. — from the movie “Godzilla: King of the Monsters”

As almost everyone knows by now, various major daily newspaper published, on July 10, a photograph of four Iranian missiles streaking heavenward; then Little Green Footballs (significantly, a blog and not a daily newspaper) provided evidence that the photograph had been faked. Later, many of those same papers published a Whitman’s sampler of retractions and apologies. For me it raised a series of questions about images.[1] Do they provide illustration of a text or an idea of evidence of some underlying reality or both? And if they are evidence, don’t we have to know that the evidence is reliable, that it can be trusted?

Hany Farid, a Dartmouth professor and an expert on digital photography, has published a number of journal articles and a recent Scientific American article on digital photographic fraud. He seemed to be a good person to start with. If a photograph has been tampered with, he’s the person to analyze how the tampering has been done. I wanted to discuss with him the issue of the Iranian photograph starting with the issue of why we trust photographs in the first place.

[ricks_place]

New York Times accepts photography that fits its agenda. Start examining Obama's document trail for inconsistancies.

[null and void]

Start? We’ve been all over it like white on rice for a couple months.

[ricks_place]

Start? We’ve been all over it like white on rice for a couple months.

The New York Times should start examining Obama's document trail for inconsistencies.

[null and void]

oh.

[endthematrix]

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind." Edward Bernays

[ricks_place]

I am not holding my breath awaiting credible, critical analysis from the New York Times on Obama, the WOT, Global Warming, Israel, George Bush, socialist-marxist-communist quislings, and so forth!

[paudio]

One thing for sure. Photography, or frame-by-frame picture of the video, secured Michael Phelps’ journey to get the 7th gold. The Serbian officials dropped their protest once FINA showed them the pictures.

[null and void]

Don’t get saucy with me, Bernays...

[endthematrix]

"Tabloid trash" (and down the American masses memory hole)

[weegee]

Fauxtography is nothing new. Not for those who know Stalinist tactics. Not for those who understand the media war. Not for those who recognize agitprop.

The NYet Times is SHOCKED to have their credibullity questioned.

[weegee]

The FBI found a dead patsy to blame the anthrax attacks on. Did they ever explain why he also attacked the offices of the Globe tabloid in Florida?

[ibtheman]

You want to check out some photo video image manipulation, check out some of the research on the 911 videos, planes hitting the buildings, man we have have been hood winked big time!And nobody wants to talk about it, or discuss it!

[endthematrix]

Maureen Stevens’ statement about anthrax investigation
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/08/07/0807statement.html

[ricks_place]

Hoodwinked! Bamboozled! We been took!

[wastoute]

Oh all those “journalists” have it on their “to do” list (examine Obama’s background. However, the template for that article is “look at what a wonder he is at managing this information!” We saw the same thing with Slick.

[Tainan]

bigfoot is real also...

[Mobile Vulgus]

Look, it’s pingzilla.

[ShasheMac]

Sadly, Harry is no longer with us. His body was recently found in a cooler in Georgia. A moment of silence, please.

[Colorado Doug]

Thanks for posting this. Did you know that the article features an image produced by Freepers, (yours truly) Colorado Doug and GOPyouth?
Shamelessly extending my 15 minutes of fame.

[rabidralph]

All you need now is John Kerry and Jane Fonda under the umbrella.