Reuters Admits to Faking Photo

Reuters has pulled a Photoshopped image of Israeli bombings in Lebanon that make it appear the bombing was far worse than it was, and that there were multiple targets in a civilian area.  The cloning feature was used in PhotoShop to clone smoke clouds making the area look more devastated than it was.

The image was doctored by none other than the photographer Adnan Hajj , also responsible for the recently staged photos from last week’s PR war against Israel in Qana, Lebanon. Coincidentally, “Cana” is where Jesus performed his first miracle 2000 years ago, turning water into wine.  Now the enemies of Israel, in this case the MSM, haven't quite has the same success in turing miracles in Qana.

To start at the beginning, read these entries.  UE Referendum started the entire expose’ with these amazingly detailed inquiries into the Associated Press’ Qana photo-op:

One  Two  Three   Four   Five   Six   Seven   Eight   Nine   Ten

Editors Helen Szamuely & Richard North should be given Pulitzers for their incredibly detailed work on this expose’. 

This prompted an e-mail by the AP congratulating themselves for supposedly pulling off a great PR success. Read the disgusting account via Little Green Footballs:

An LGF reader has forwarded the following email (I suppose you could say our reader “leaked” it), sent to all Associated Press employees, congratulating themselves on the propaganda photos from Qana and awarding the photographers cash prizes:

Dear Staffers:

Last Sunday proved to be one of the most dramatic days in the war between Israel and Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon. AP’s extensive photo team produced a stunning series of images that day that beat the competition and scored huge play worldwide.

Rumors surfaced early Sunday morning that an Israeli airstrike had flattened a house in the southern Lebanese village of Qana. The number of deaths wasn’t immediately known, but the seriousness of the incident was clear. Beirut-based photographer Hussein Malla immediately called AP photographers Nasser Nasser, Lefteris Pitarakis and stringer Mohammed Zaatari and advised them to rush to the scene. Nasser arrived as the bodies of many civilians — including numerous children — were being pulled from the rubble. Lefteris later took over, enabling Nasser to get his pictures swiftly onto the wire. Kevin Frayer was dispatched from Beirut to boost AP’s presence. Throughout the morning, AP’s team filed a steady stream of powerful images.

Meanwhile, in Beirut, a small Hezbollah demonstration exploded into violence at word of the Qana attack. Hezbollah supporters stormed the nearby United Nations building, scaling walls and smashing their way past bulletproof glass barriers to enter the building itself. Photographers Hussein Malla, Kevork Djansezian and Ben Curtis were all there to capture the rioting. Beirut-based photo editor Dalia Khamissy coordinated with photographers in the field and handled a steady stream of stringer photos. All day long, AP photographers relayed what they were seeing to AP reporters for print stories.

Nasser ’s most haunting image showed a man emerging from the rubble carrying the lifeless and dust-covered body of a child. Calm, morning light shone down on man and child, highlighting them against an almost monochrome background of pure rubble. ... Nasser’s image ran on the front pages of at least 33 newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the New York Post. It also won a double-page center spread in The Guardian of London. Lefteris’s image of a resident weeping next to a row of bodies made the front of The Washington Post, among many others. Hussein, Kevork and Ben’s images of the storming of the UN building easily beat those of the competition.

For a day of outstanding a memorable photos, taken in conditions of substantial danger, the Lebanon photo team of Nasser Nasser, Lefteris Pitarakis, Kevin Frayer, Mohammed Zaatari, Ben Curtis, Hussein Malla, Kevork Djansezian and Dalia Khamissy shares this week’s $500 Beat of the Week award.

Unbelievable.  Now it is reported that the casualties in Qana are only 1/2 of the original report.  Hmmmm......  Note that the little girl, who was photographed in other images at various times, had succumbed to Rigor Mortis, a condition that occurs many HOURS after death resulting in stiffening of the muscles.  That's why the little girls' arms are stationary. The photo presumed that the girl had just been killed by an Israeli attack.  This doesn't even address the issue of Hezbollah's use of children as human shields and collateral damage.  Clearly the girl was used as a prop to promote anti-Jewish propaganda.  This has been well established via EU Referendum's columns. 

Enter Little Green Footballs, who broke the story about the doctored Reuters photo.  Read the blow by blows HERE and HERE.

Left & Right dissects the Reuters fraudulent photo.

Even Rush is covering the unfolding events.

Little Green Footballs' Charles Johnson received a death threat from a Reuters employee which read:

"I look forward to the day when you pigs get your throats cut."

What’s the point? Anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, anti-American news agencies are falsifying photos and creating news to help Hezbollah win in the war of images.  For all those on the left who whine that Conservatives don't understand how objective the MSM is, or that we're the ones with the bias, take your feet out of your mouths and eat crow.  Rathergate, anyone?

OTHERS BLOGGING:

Michelle Malkin  Stop the ACLU  Expose the Left   Coa's Blog

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Update on Monday, August 7, 2006 at 12:30PM by Amy Proctor

More Photo Ops and Fake Footage

The freelance photographer for Reuters, Adnan Hajj, has also doctored this photo, which appeared via Reuters:

What's wrong with this picture of an Israeli jet firing missiles into Lebanese civilian areas?  According to Jawa Report (who has full details.. a must read)...

"The F-16 in the photo is not firing missiles, but rather dropping flares designed to be a decoy for surface to air missiles.  However, a close up of what Hajj calls missiles reveals that only one flare has been dropped .  The other two "flares" are simply copies of the original."

Jawa Report goes into great detail showing how the flares have been copied and repasted.  Jawa Report has this and this to show the discrepancy.  Adnan Hajj, according to Reuters, is out of a job.  Hajj is also responsible for this fake photo from Lebanon. 

 

Hajj is not alone in his anti-Israeli, pro-Hezbollah propaganda.  Check out this other set of Reuters photo op propaganda photos from the unluckiest double home owner in Lebanon... or is she posing as if BOTH of her houses were taken out by Israel? 

 

How about the news report that Israeli strikes overnight killed 40 in Lebanon?  Oh, wait, make that ONE fatality after all.  Their bad.  Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora had called it the "massacre in Houla" and originally said, 

"This shows Israel's intent to kill civilians.  The Israeli attack in Houla was a horrific massacre ... in which more than 40 martyrs were victims of deliberate bombing."

That has been recanted.  The Qana incident as detailed (above) by EU Referendum was the tip of the iceberg......

Comments

[Dave Lucas]

Enhanced News Photography is nothing new. We've seen it before and we'll see it again. I know a couple of 12 year old kids who photoshop rings around these embellished pictures. I guess the average citizen is too dumb to realize they're looking at a phony photo--- is that it? Why even bother dressing up a picture if you're going to do it so crudely? Why not take a sabbatical and immerse yourself in image manipulation software for a year or two and THEN come back and doctor the pix!

[Jo]

What is so sad is that those folks that only get their news from the MSM without researching different outlets like most bloggers do aren't going to hear the truth.

[Hawkeye]

Great article Amy! Really pulls it all together. Can you imagine if Fox News got caught doing something like that? My God... we'd hear about it for MONTHS from the MSM. I bet this stuff gets covered up! Just watch.

Regards...

[Tim]

This will get almost zero coverage on the mainstream networks.

[Aimz]

Shame on them, considering the media are the ones responsible for what people see around the world.

[Fix4RSO]

Cracked another one outta the park, Amy! So glad that you are out in the blogosphere!

[Amy Proctor]

Fix4RSO, really it was Little Green Footballs and EU Referendum that hit the homer. I reported on their findings. Little Green Footballs claim to fame is exposing Rathergate, the fraudulent "Bush" Guard documents.

If you look over the links I posted, you'll see it'd take HOURS to pour over information and comparing photographs, noting time stamps and dates, as well as being familiar with technical aspects of media and press. I'd have to give up my life to pursue the level of expertise exacted by these guys, and who has the time? My family, friends and life are more important.

So all I can do is do a round up. Thank God there are folks out there who can make a living at blogging and can devote this kind of attention to detail to bust open the MSM for us. We all benefit.

Aimz, that's actually very well said. You would think that the sheer weight of responsibility involved in translating information via news, video or photos would be enough to keep them honest. Evidently not. The liberal MSM has some majory character issues.

[Trent]

This is utterly shocking. We all know about the liberal biases of the MSM, but it's one thing if the NY Times pulls one of their stunts. We've come to expect it from them. But *changing* the news to support an agenda is a violation of the most basic codes of journalistic conduct!

As for the LGF guy getting death threats, gee, could that *possibly* have been written by an Islamofascist???

[Phil]

"There they go again" as President Ronald Reagan Would say, the media is at their lies again and again, it's almost so repetitive and so plain to see that their agenda comes first and foremost above reporting the news.

[Phil]

Charles Johnson from Little Green Footballs received a death threat from a Reuters employee, imagine that the tollerant liberal media establishment sending death threats to any conservative for simply pointing out the facts. Truely amazing isn't it. I guess we see just how tollerant that the Liberals really are.

[Trent]

This update makes things look even worse! When you see it, you call it what it is- antisemitism.

Thank God for the bloggers or this stuff would never have been noticed!

By the way, I do a *lot* of Photochopping and that Lebanese photographer's work is so pathetic there's no way I'd subcontract any of my freelance web design work to him.

[Mark]

Morality has not just taken a back seat, it's been thrown from the bus, and society as a whole suffers for it, and this is about the billionth example of it.

we can't trust the news, and that's a shame.

[Phil]

Not so fast, Reuters
By Michelle Malkin · August 08, 2006 11:04 AM

***update: Reuters has photo fraud detection software...guess they forgot to turn it on
http://hotair.com/archives/the-blog/2006/08/08/reuters-uses-hoax-detection-software-for-images/
...in related news: Ace of Spades revealed...*** http://ace.mu.nu/archives/189537.php

http://hotair.com/archives/the-blog/2006/08/08/video-michelle-debates-something-or-other-on-oreilly/
I had about 30 seconds to talk about the Reuterization of war journalism on O'Reilly last night, which is just
the way it is on cable TV. Thankfully, there are no time limits or topic constraints on the Internet. Which is why I started Hot Air in the first place. We've posted our report, "Picture Kill," up on YouTube. Watch right here and feel free to pass it around to friends and family who are still stuck watching the dinosaur media:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0SFbQ0XFnsU

Links and comments here.
http://hotair.com/archives/vent/2006/08/08/picture-kill/

BBC reports that Adnan Hajj is standing by his photo of the Israeli jet dropping "missiles" on southern Lebanon:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5254838.stm

Mr Hajj, a freelance photographer working for Reuters, denied altering the second photograph, an image of an Israeli F-16 fighter over Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon.

"There's no problem with it, not at all," he said in a BBC interview.

Riiiight.
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/184206.php

Meanwhile, Reuters does it again: "Bombing of Funeral: False Reporting by Reuters." (hat tip - BP)
http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=109521

In related news, AP recalled a doctored photo of an Alaskan pipeline worker:
http://www.wral.com/news/9644521/detail.html

[O]n Monday, the AP recalled a photo that it had transmitted Sunday night of a worker in Alaska examining an oil pipeline. In that photo, the worker appeared to have four hands, and there were other elements such as a section of pipe that appeared to have a double image.

Lyon said the distortions were unintentional and resulted from careless use by the photographer of a software feature in Photoshop called a "cloning tool." The photographer had used the feature in an attempt to clear up a glitch in the picture caused by a dirty sensor, the part of a digital camera that records the image. AP's ethical guidelines permit use of "cloning" in limited circumstances to clean up dirt or scratches from an image.

And an AFP photo misidentified a Katyusha rocket headed toward Israeli as an Israeli rocket headed toward Lebanon.
http://ussneverdock.blogspot.com/2006/08/lebanon-photogate-afp-joins-in.html

http://www.investors.com/editorial/EditorialContent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=239841568183848&secure=1&show=1
IBD has a good editorial on "Jihad Journalism?" This is not just about a few doctored photos. This is not just about one rogue freelancer. Unfortunately, there are many in my business who can't wait for it to be over with so they can bury their heads in the sand again and be rid of the unruly bloggers again. It's a familiar pattern.
http://www.google.com/search?hs=rLt&hl=en&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=rathergate&btnG=Search

http://hotair.com/archives/the-blog/2006/07/25/blog-scandal-erupts-over-scandalous-omissions-from-my-blog-scandal-post/

http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2006/08/what-we-are-up-against.html
The guys at EU Referendum provide sober reminders that the Reuterization of war journalism and the commodification of death go far beyond Reuters.
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2006/08/death-is-commodity.html

Jeff Harrell talks to an AP stringer.
http://theshapeofdays.com/2006/08/a_photojournalist_weighs_in_on_the_adnan.html

[Amy Proctor]

Awesome links, Phil!

[Trent]

Hey, I wonder where are all the liberal/MSM apologists are?

[Mavic]

You know whats funny, you should take a look at the real unedited photo. Not much different

[Trent]

Mavic,

I've only seen lo-res versions of the original but I seem to remember seeing more buildings standing up than in the doctored photo. That to me is more sinister than extra plumes of smoke. Stating that the damage was more extensive than it was is a much bigger lie than the black level of the smoke.

[Amy Proctor]

Mavic,

I can't believe we agree. I think if Hajj had not retouched the photo it would have been much more effective. The problem is that Hajj has an agenda and wanted the photo to look more devastating than it was. Multiple strikes into a civilian area would prove his mistaken point that Zionist pigs kill babies. His own lack of character for protraying a PR stunt in place of an honest photo ruined him at Reuters. Here's the original:

http://michellemalkin.com/archives/images/before.jpg

It was reported by either AP or Reuters a few days ago that Israel bombed a funeral procession... anti-semetic media types ran with it..... except that it was false. I'll find that story and post a link to it.

[Trent]

Trent wrote-
"Hey, I wonder where are all the liberal/MSM apologists are?"

*chirping crickets*