Monday, August 07, 2006

Crooked Press?!?

This just goes to show that no one should trust the press. After numerous allegations of doctoring documents, fake sources, and a variety of other claims; now Reuters is accepting doctored photographs.

The story is in full force now across many sources including Ynet, Reuters, Editor & Publisher, and blogs, My Pet Jawa and Michelle Malkin - all laying out the story in great detail. Apparently a certain "Lebanese freelance" photographer, Hajj, has submitted over 920 photos to Reuters - some being doctored to make the Israeli attacks seem more fierce. This doctoring has an obvious agenda of demonizing Israeli forces and implying excessive assaults on Hizbollah. Reuters has pulled the photos and states:

Global Picture Editor Tom Szlukovenyi called the measure precautionary but said the fact that two of the images by photographer Adnan Hajj had been manipulated undermined trust in his entire body of work.

"There is no graver breach of Reuters standards for our photographers than the deliberate manipulation of an image," Szlukovenyi said in a statement.

"Reuters has zero tolerance for any doctoring of pictures and constantly reminds its photographers, both staff and freelance, of this strict and unalterable policy."

That sounds all fine and dandy but how come it took numerous complaints and a wave of bloggers pointing out the manipulation before Reuters pulled the ads? It's apparent that Reuters would've let this slide if it weren't for the national attention.

It's kind of ridiculous how people are so trusting of the press and in the long run, this will all turn out to be a part of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy.

HT: Drudge Report.

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