8/6/2006: Beirut Photoshop

IotD is not a political blog at all, and that's by design. On the rest of the Cellar, I personally enjoy talking politics all the time. But on IotD, when it comes to politics, what's mind-boggling to me might not be mind-boggling to you and vice-versa. And the mideast, well that's like the abortion of talking politics; everyone harshly, completely on one side or the other, bringing maximum outrage to the topic. Plenty mind-boggling about it, but the arguments weigh down the enjoyable side of mind-boggling very quickly.

So why this political entry about the mideast? I dunno, I guess I think this photo is mind-boggling no matter which side you're on. Let's see what you think.

The above photo is from the Reuters news service, and I found it in Yahoo! Most Popular today at 10:30 am. As of this writing, it's still there. The caption reads:

Good link at the bottom. Nothing surprising about their tactics, but good to see it being exposed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Undertoad This might be the original:

got to AMP it up some to make the pic look good .

cock

The images are best viewed to this soundtrack.

My guess is they brightened and added contrast to give the buildings in the foreground more definition. That resulted in the sky being bright white so they expanded the area of smoke to tone down the sky.

It's disturbing the editor, probably a photo editor, but at least a pro, didn't spot this as a fake immediately. Deadlines be damned, the whole story, and the agency for that matter, lose credibility.

One thing is apparent, though.....Hezbollah has used the media much more effectively than the IDF, from the git-go.

Layer Style> Big Noisy Border
Window> Show Options
Select> All
Filter> Pixelate> Fragment
Layer> Flatten Image

That coupled with their indiscriminate killing marks Hisballah as a terrorist organization in my book.

Armies win by beating their opponents into submission.
Terrorists win by tricking their opponents into thinking theyve been beaten into submission.

From time to time I think the mainstream will unravel.

http://drinkingfromhome.blogspot.com...t-edition.html

The same woman wails after her home is destroyed July 22... and again at another home, August 5.

Same photographer...

It happens way too much. Calling it anything but poor editorial judgement reveals too much tinfoil cap for my taste.

No doubt that is photoshopped.

and for sure, journos want to make their money and everyone wants to have shot the iconic shot. every photographer woudl like their vietnam moment, the photo that once seen cannot be forgotten.
www.vietnamwar.com/vietcongofficershootsman.jpg
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpsrv/...y/gallery2.htm

But as for all the green helmet/white t-shirt stuff...yup, maybe they are going for the photo op, they won't be the 1st they won't be the last, but what you can't change about those images is: a dead kid is a dead kid.

chances of those kids being members of Hezbollah or any other terrorist organisation?

Journalists are shown by a Hizbollah guerrilla group the damage caused by Israeli attacks on a Hizbollah stronghold in southern Beirut, July 24 2006. (Adnan Hajj/Reuters)



A Lebanese woman looks at the sky as she walks past a building flattened during an overnight Israeli air raid on Beirut's suburbs August 5, 2006. (Adnan Hajj/Reuters)

"Overnight". Same building, two weeks apart.

But yeah Tippy it's not like they don't have other destruction to photograph. But the wire services should be better than this. The world depends on it.

That photoshoppery has got to be the worst I've ever seen. And they fired the guy...Reuters should be fired. It is so bad, it might even be on purpose. Maybe its a political statement by the shopper. The Media will print nearly anything these days, and this is another fine example.

Analysis of another Reutersgate/Hajj image discovered to be doctored. (This is the one of the IDF F-16 "dropping bombs and launching rockets")

Yea and I remember when this ran!

They have now removed from their database all photos ever submitted by this guy.

Christ Maggie, give it a rest. This has nothing to do with republicans or Democrats, right or left.

It's about a major media source being hoodwinked by an unscrupulous correspondent.

The cellar covered this issue back at the beginning of the war with Iraq, http://www.cellar.org/showthread.php...doctored+image

If they've got you looking for "right/leftness" in everything you see, then you're a slave to the ping-pong game, destined forever to vote "against" rather than "for" in every election, destined forever to be a willing participant in the contrived, superficial competition between "them" and "them" . . .

The lefty-rightyness of it comes from the MSM being 90% lefty*. So they didn't remove smoke from the photo. They didn't put the soldier in a less menacing position. They didn't find a memo that said Bush fulfilled his National Guard duty. And it's the righty blogs that fact-checked their ass.


*as a centrist i am the final arbiter on this factoid

Like this: New study detects media's liberal tilt which supposedly "scientifically proves" this idea that the "MSM" is "90% lefty" . . . "...the authors start by examining the ratings of members of Congress, according to Americans for Democratic Action (ADA)..." I tried to keep reading after that...and I don't really know who ADA is, or have any reason to think they swing one way or the other . . . but this isn't science. This subject isn't something that can be scientifically studied. It's like "scientifically" debating whether God exists without establishing a definition of what God even means. You can't base science on the shifting sands of perception . . . what does "liberal" mean exactly? Putting alot of gravy, a "liberal" amount on your mashed potatoes? that debate would be based on source data from Americans For Tasty Side Dishes (ATSD) - but the catch is the source data isn't scientific data!

No, I just opt out of the "left versus right" mudslinging because I find it counter-productive to any meaningful dialogue.

I too want to escape the usual he-said-she-said of what is considered mainstream politics, because the bogus debate is hurting America (ref Jon Stewart re Crossfire) and is tedious.

But I can't help but notice that everyone has a bias, a narrative on what happened, everyone is in schools of thought which influence their point of view.

I would like them to admit the bias so that I can sort of triangulate on the truth. But they don't admit it, so I am left to work it out myself. What a pain in the ass!

I don't think that you can declare allegience to an unspecified category, if that makes sense. The problem here is the fallacy of impartiality: we are all biased, as human beings. But trying to lump us into two clean groups is just plain silly.

I'm dismissing the notion that we can be so easily manipulated by an "us versus them" distraction when the two "sides" agree on 99% of the things that are really going to matter in the long run. It's worse than "east coast versus west coast" - but in this case, it isn't just rap albums that are for sale.

Point taken. But it is worthy to note that I don't watch TV. That alone does wonders.

HEZBOLLYYWOOD !!!!!!!!!!!!!



New York Times has joined the fun. Some fake dead.

"New York Times Busted in Hezbollah Photo Fraud!

** Dead Men Walking! **

From the New York Times photo essay by Tyler Hicks on July 27, 2006 comes this unbelievable fraud!"

I knew it immediately too. It's partly a "computer person" thing, partly a lifelong interest in fonts and typesetting and printing. You remember how documents were created and how they looked through history. How expensive it was to print certain ways.

I looked at it for about three seconds and knew they had been caught. Like my eyes had been sensitized to spot things - it felt at first like a "Beautiful Mind" moment. And then I proceeded to laugh my ass off for the rest of the week as various sides lined up as they looked to first defend the document, and then to say it was fake but accurate. It was great entertainment.

I wound up not voting for Bush... I point that out to say, all my excitement for this has little to do with the politics of it, and everything to do with the Internet, enabling this army of fact-checkers to go to town. And how news changes in the net era.

In fact it will be a great sign that things have changed when the lefty bloggers do the same thing. But they have bigger fish to fry - they've just caused a powerful incumbent Senator to lose a primary on issues, something that just never happens without a scandal.

Whereas the doctored photo is visible to the naked eye, with no specialized knowledge or training necessary. We have evloved to intuitively pick up on patterns seen in nature. Also...nobody could theorize that "the crude forgery was genuine" because the wrong-ness of it is clearly visible, at a glance, to anyone who is not legally blind.

"Paint versus Word" is a very clever comparison, but doesn't quite get there.

How can they admit to my perceptions of bias? Good question I think they should just stop trying to say they're not biased. Stop trying to say that what's being presented is the objective Truth.

People say to me how can you watch that Fox News crap. It's simple, you just watch it with the thought in the back of your mind that it's biased and crap. Then you get more information. You don't even have to like them. I don't like my neighbor's dog, but his barking does give me information. I don't like all the blogs out there, some of them are just "echo chambers" for people who like to be with other people who think just like they do. But they come up with good information.

At the root of this is the fact that there is no such thing as objective truth.

But we won't go there in this thread.

I dislike Michelle Malkin, I think she is annoying and a total bitch and often completely wrong. This morning her post on more Lebanon coverage is must reading. First a NY Times caption is shown to be bogus as an injured man in one photo is shown in other photos to be merrily walking around.

Then a US News COVER is shown to be entirely bogus as the fire and ruins of an Israeli jet turn out to be... a tire fire!!!

I listen to Sean Hannity's talk radio show sometimes. Surprisingly, I don't always disagree with him 100%. But seriously, if you don't percieve a bias in your favorite news source it just means they share the same bias as you.

I honestly believe that if anything important is happening in the world, there will be a debate about it on the internet.

Totally clean dust-free toys are added to scenes of destruction for dramatic effect

Al Jazzera video proves that the tire fire mentioned above was caused by a misfired Hezbollah missile

Wow, Sundae, you feet are a bit more masculine than I pictured. No offense intended.

NONONO, UT, youve got it all wrong! I found Hajj's real picture...

The scary thing was it was a red rubber band - only used by the Post Office in this country but pinched from the postroom by me. My toenails are purple at the moment though. Nail varnish, not bruising I hasten to add.

This is all very delicious! Thanks for the laughs!

Seriously, though, I always knew my paranoia would some day pay off.

Obviously a fasho-Islamic plot, the USPS also uses red elastic bands.

note ~ I usually say rubber bands but when reporting terrorist activities accuracy is important... just ask Homeland Security.

And I knew that you knew that, because you gave me that band, in a set of them, and you told me how they came to be in your possession And now the cycle is complete

Some more Picture

These are really nice pictures...

and Please tell me if they are photoshoped or not ....


The attached Zipped file contains a power Point Presentation of all the images.


Regards

Check this Report and tell me were are the Fraudulant photos.....


http://www.informationclearinghouse....ticle14258.htm

Checkout this blog...

http://cellar.org/showthread.php?t=1...ghlight=beirut

TJAUH

COME NOW.

a file TITLED: "aggressionagainstlebanon" --- spew your lies elsewhere.

Hezbollah grabs IDF soldiers, starts a calculated war that it had prepared for and launches 100s of MISSILES to Israel.

Israel intentionally sends leaflets directing civilians where to go and targets Hezbollah bases, WHICH HAVE BEEN DOCUMENTED THAT HEZBOLLAH USES CIVILANS AS SHIELDS EVERY CHANCE THEY GET.

Civilian deaths have happened on both sides, yes. Most of us know which side tries to avoid them, and which side doesn't give a flying F, as long as they kill as many jews as possible. So, I think you can take your powerpoint presentation called "agression AGAINST LEBANON", which is what the Hezbollah supporters would WANT you to believe, and shove it!

I guess we're now officially part of the Hezbollah "Military Media" propaganda network.

UT, wear your jammies to bed tonight in case Homeland Security or another of those pesky organizations comes calling.

Hell with that, UT...let 'em see your wicked willy waving wild in the wind.

Uh, Elspode....it's kind of chilly here tonight.

A funny jab at the Beirut picture here.

Yeah, every payday...poof...you're a civilian.

Most interesting!