Follow up post to that posted by Michelle Malkin yesterday regarding the Reuters Creative Photo Department.
Note that the freelance photographer said, "There's no problem with it, not at all," when interviewed by the BBC. I don't read a denial in that statement, do you? He just doesn't have a "problem" with it.
From Michelle Malkin:
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:InstaPunk gives photographer the benefit of the doubt here...
HOT AIR video here.
BBC reports that Adnan Hajj is standing by his photo of the Israeli jet dropping "missiles" on southern Lebanon:
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.
Meanwhile, Reuters does it again: "Bombing of Funeral: False Reporting by Reuters." (hat tip - BP)
In related news, AP recalled a doctored photo of an Alaskan pipeline worker:
[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.
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.
The guys at EU Referendum provide sober reminders that the Reuterization of war journalism and the commodification of death go far beyond Reuters.
The benefit of the doubt would come in handy with an awful lot in these times. Perhaps it should be given to more than just the msm, rather than going off half cocked against the usual suspects....
