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AP Shuts Down Blogger With Threats of Legal Action Well, here is what might be a landmark case for the blogosphere, for the Internet, and for the future of our new media, citizen journalism. The AP has just sent a cease and desist letter to Brian C. Ledbetter telling him to stop using their copyrighted images on his website, snappedshot.com. Snappedshot.com is a site predicated on criticism of photo-journalism. In pursuit of his criticism, Mr. Ledbetter uses photos from across the web that he thinks are doctored or misleading in some way. He then reports his opinion on the bias...

In Defense of War Photographers While some criticism is warranted, the current controversy over manipulated or staged pictures from Lebanon has been fueled by speculative, unfounded, or politically-driven charges that have tainted all of the brave photographers who cover conflict in the Middle East. By Greg Mitchell (August 22, 2006) -- With most others in the mainstream media silent, I rise here in support of the overwhelming number of press photographers in the Middle East who bravely, under horrid conditions, in recent weeks have sent back graphic and revealing pictures from the war zones, only to be smeared, as a...

With Fox News reporter Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig still being held hostage by Palestinian terrorists, the Western media has received a potent reminder that broadcasting certain truths from inside Arab territory can result in devastating consequences. While it is not clear the kidnappers’ motivation—they have yet to state any demands—this is just the latest in a string of abductions, which is in and of itself only part of the arsenal of heavy-handed media intimidation present in the region. Thuggery helps explain the obscenely low volume of negative press coverage of the Palestinian Authority, Fatah, Hamas, Hezbollah, and others....

Amid the controversy over certain pictures from Lebanon, a longtime student of war photography asks, "I'm not sure if the craft I love is being murdered, committing suicide, or both." By David D. Perlmutter (August 18, 2006) -- The Israeli-Hezbollah war has left many dead bodies, ruined towns, and wobbling politicians in its wake, but the media historian of the future may also count as one more victim the profession of photojournalism. In twenty years of researching and teaching about the art and trade and doing photo-documentary work, I have never witnessed or heard of such a wave of attacks...

The first Photoshop war Lebanon war's doctored photos could be harbinger of photojournalism crisis Gal Mor The photo of an apparently new Mickey Mouse doll, resting on a ruined street in the Lebanese town of Tyre following an Israeli Air Force attack, took me back to a British TV show called "Drop the Dead Monkey," which aired in Israel about 15 years ago. One of the journalists in Channel 4's satirical show used to hang around battle zones with a teddy bear in his trunk and place it at disaster zones a short time before cameras began shooting, in order...

OK, now things are getting weird. This Reuters photograph shows blatant evidence of manipulation. Notice the repeating patterns in the smoke; this is almost certainly caused by using the Photoshop “clone” tool to add more smoke to the image. (Hat tip: Mike.) It’s so incredibly obvious, it reminds me of the faked CBS memos. Smoke simply does not contain repeating symmetrical patterns like this, and you can see the repetition in both plumes of smoke. There’s really no question about it. But it’s not only the plumes of smoke that were “enhanced.” There are also cloned buildings. (See below.) [More...

The Rocky Mountain News was honored Monday with Pulitzer Prizes in writing and photography for its unflinching look at the way U.S. Marines honor comrades who have paid the ultimate price. In a newsroom celebration marked by emotion and tears, reporter Jim Sheeler was recognized for winning in feature writing and photographer Todd Heisler in feature photography for their collaboration, "Final Salute." The special report followed a Marine major who has the difficult task of making death notifications and of helping families begin to face life after loss. And while there was tremendous satisfaction in the awards, there was also...

Looking for the bill clinton 'Can we kill 'em tomorrow?' audio or video (AND WHAT ARE THOSE NEWS SERVICE PHOTOS OF BILL + HILLARY ABOUT, ANYWAY?) It 10 was uttered on April 12, 2006. The impeached ex-president was accepting an award named after his mentor, the late Sen. William Fulbright of Arkansas. BTW, this AP photo of him rivals the Reuters fire-and-brimstone photo of her.... Well, almost. ;) Is the news-service sector trying to tell us something? IS REUTERS SENDING A MESSAGE ABOUT A COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF HILLARY? Carpe Mañana: The clinton Terrorism Policy('Can we kill 'em tomorrow?') FOOL ME ONCE,...

ATLANTA (AP) - Photojournalist Michael Evans, who captured an iconic image of a grinning Ronald Reagan wearing a worn cowboy hat, has died. He was 61. Evans died Thursday at his Atlanta home after having cancer for four years, the National Press Photographers Association said. In 1975, while covering Reagan's unsuccessful campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, he took the famous picture of the future president, which ran on the covers of Time, Newsweek and People magazines after the president's death last year. After Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter in 1980, Evans became the new president's personal photographer. For the next...

NEW ORLEANS, Sept 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. government agency leading the rescue efforts after Hurricane Katrina said on Tuesday it does not want the news media to take photographs of the dead as they are recovered from the flooded New Orleans area. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, heavily criticized for its slow response to the devastation caused by the hurricane, rejected requests from journalists to accompany rescue boats as they went out to search for storm victims. An agency spokeswoman said space was needed on the rescue boats and that "the recovery of the victims is being treated...

While the news of Thursday's terrorist attacks in London spread through the traditional news media's Web sites and the newer blogosphere, populist photojournalism took a bow on photo-sharing sites such as Yahoo's new acquisition, Flickr. Within moments after the four explosions shook London's transportation system -- killing over 50 and wounding hundreds more -- users began pooling photographs on Flickr, a photo-sharing site and service that lets people tag pictures with comments and labels. The surge in traffic caught Flickr at the end of a shift of its operations from a co-hosting service in Canada to Yahoo's own data center....

Photographer Ken Jarecke talks about his 1991 shot of an incinerated Iraqi soldier, which was at first regarded by many editors as too disturbing to print, but later became one of the most famous images of the first Gulf War. The image shows a burned-beyond-recognition Iraqi soldier in the front window of a destroyed truck. The sun is coming in through the back of the truck and most of the surfaces in the image are burned and just torn up, so it's almost a black and white image although it was made on colour film. It was early in the...

WASHINGTON — Even though thousands of pictures have been taken during the U.S. occupation in Iraq, Maj. Benjamin Busch doesn’t think many Americans have really seen the country. The Marine took hundreds of photos of his own during his 13-month tour following the invasion of Iraq, and will be displaying 100 of them at University of Maryland University College in College Park, Md., next month. He thinks they show an unfiltered look at everyday Iraqis, and their reaction to the war. “This exhibit does not insist that the war was a mistake or that it was necessary; those positions have...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) Whether the photos show grieving relatives of a beheaded hostage or naked Iraqis in a military prison camp, they are more likely to be published in domestic newspapers since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a panel of journalists said Friday. ``Since 9/11, I think there is probably a moving standard, a changing standard for the sorts of pictures we will run in the paper,'' said Chris Peck, editor of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn. Peck was moderator of a discussion about ``tough calls in photojournalism'' at a joint session of the Associated Press Managing Editors and...

Hello, This might not be the right place to post this, but I'm exhausting my options. I'm in the process of creating a photo journal about the Support our Troops, pro-US, etc. movement in response to the overwhelming anti-America, pro-Saddam movement that kicked up last year. I have a large collection of photos including ones I've taken myself, other amateur photos with permission I've gotten off protest warrior and such, and other places. I am looking for one particular photo, however. I thought it was quite powerful, but I can not find it anywhere on the internet or in any...

In the long-ago '70s, the now-defunct Hearst paper in Los Angeles asked me to do a series of pieces about all those new-fangled ways people were watching movies. Not only could you rent a movie (at the time, a concept incredibly novel, and restricted to those who had hundreds to spend on big, heavy tape players), but in some places, you could sit at home and watch whole channels devoted to movies. Home Box Office had started transmitting hockey games and movies to a bunch of gadgeteers in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1972. Only a few years later, cable was going...

NEW YORK—Sarah Harbutt, Newsweek’s director of photography for the last three years, has been forced out of the magazine, according to sources within the magazine. After news leaked out last Friday that Harbutt was leaving, Newsweek’s public relations department went into spin control. On Monday spokesperson Ken Weine refused to comment on what he called an "employee matter," although he insisted that Harbutt remained "a valued part of the Newsweek team." On Wednesday, Weine changed course, saying Harbutt has "resigned to pursue a book." Calls to Harbutt were not returned. Several of Newsweek’s contributors believe Harbutt was pushed out, citing...