Reuters Quietly Fired Top Editor During Photoshop Scandal

Little Green Footballs ^ | January 18, 2007 | lgf

[george76]

new information about the Reuters Photoshop scandal:

Reuters fired a top photo editor for the Middle East during an internal investigation of two doctored photos from the Israel-Lebanon war that were published last summer.

The editor was the second casualty of the photo manipulation controversy surrounding Reuters freelancer Adnan Hajj. Two of Hajj’s photographs showed obvious signs of digital alterations. Facing a storm of criticism last August, Reuters terminated its relationship with Hajj and pulled more than 900 of his photos from its archive. A Reuters spokesperson said Thursday that the company would not release the name of the editor who was dismissed.

In all of Reuters’ statements and reports on the incident, they’ve never mentioned that a “top photo editor” was also fired.

Why were they secretive about this, and why won’t they release the editor’s name?

[george76]

Reuters fauxtography

.

[george76]

Damage control ?

[george76]

why won’t they release the editor’s name?

[bray]

Must have made the terrorists look bad??

Pray for W and Our Troops

[Cicero]

Good. Maybe in future Reuters staffers will be just a tiny bit more careful how they lie.

[zarf]

Congrats to Little Green Footballs for heads up work.

[philetus]

A Reuters spokesperson said Thursday that the company would not release the name of the editor who was dismissed."

If someone is dismissed but nobody knows who was dismissed, is anyone dismissed?

[george76]

LGF is good.

More here :

http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/newswire/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003534746

[george76]

Excellent question

If someone is dismissed but nobody knows who was dismissed, is anyone dismissed?

[onyx]

LOL -- it's too late tonight for me to ponder that one...lol.

[Trajan88]

probably because some some commie-/socialist-loving POS lawyer negotiated a "glowing" performance apprasial that was added to this former Reuters' editor's personnel file so he/she could land another job at, say, the NY Times... so he/she could continue to pepetuate lies 'till hell freezes over.

[Socratic]

Bingo.

[george76]

Coming to a town near us.

so he/she could continue to pepetuate lies 'till hell freezes over.

[lilylangtree]

NY Slimes & Ratty Reuters have a credibility problem.

[Parley Baer]

AKA Al Reuters.

[SandRat]

Rats protecting other Rats perhaps

[george76]

If someone is dismissed but nobody knows who was dismissed, is anyone dismissed? .

[weegee]

Double PING:

Media Schadenfreude and Media Shenanigans PING

Houston PING

This documentary that will be showing at Rice University this Spring looks "interesting":

http://www.ricecinema.rice.edu/schedule.cfm

Sat. April 7 9:00 PM
Shooting Under Fire

Part of the Margaret Mead Film Festival

d. Sacha Mirzoeff
Germany/Palestine, 2005. 72 min.)

Modern warfare is carried out both on the battlefield and in the media. More and more, we rely on journalists and photographers to provide us with unbiased access to events as they happen. Shooting Under Fire introduces Reinhard Krause, head of the Reuters photo bureau in the West Bank and Gaza, and his team of local Israeli and Palestinian photographers, who cover both sides of the Israeli conflict. This riveting film highlights the individuals who risk their lives to bring us the pictures.

From IMDB (link above):

The Story: Reinhard Krause, the German head of the Reuters Israeli photo bureau is up against a deadline and facing a moral dilemma. He's looking at a photo that shows the head of the female suicide bomber still perfectly in tact lying on the ground, severed cleanly from her body without a blemish on her face and with no blood to be seen. Does he decide to show this to the world or keep it hidden? "Every picture must tell a story" Reinhard says and it's clear what happened with this frame, but is the world ready for this kind of image? He needs to decide within minutes. Welcome to the everyday difficulties of depicting a story that keeps rolling on with new horrors. This film joins Reinhard during the last few weeks of his 4 year placement in Israel and unveils the people and the pressured process of a news agency producing the photos we see in papers around the world. Reinhard single-handedly revolutionised how photos are taken and reported upon in Israel and is now working with a well-oiled team made up of both Palestinians and Israelis, many of whom still have never met, as freedom of movement is restricted for everyone. Both sides of the war report to the same person. Reinhard's team reports on atrocities most days and each of them has found different ways to cope with the stress of what they are witnessing. Gil, an Israeli photographer breaks down on camera after covering an emotional funeral saying that sometimes he feels like an animal chasing after the shots. Ahmed, a Palestinian who was nearly killed when on the job knows that it's his duty to show the world what is really going on in Gaza and lives and breathes his job. Nir, a young talented photographer in Tel Aviv has learnt to separate the day job and his leisure time and blocks off what he doesn't want to think about. Abed, a resident in the anarchic West Bank town of Nablus has become a spokesman for local journalists even though he's had to endure 90 days of curfew before. All of them won't change their job for love nor money. This film gets behind the world's oldest news agency to show how the news is made and reported on, from the first ambulance text of an accident in Jerusalem to the front page of the papers the next morning. Few of us stop to think how our stories and pictures come to us. With unprecedented access Shooting under Fire shows us the full process, highlighting the staggeringly fast digital technology, the difficult morals that await even the toughest of snappers, and the extreme lives that people lead in a land in war.

[Fresh Wind]

I suspect the problem wasn't that the photos were doctored, it was that they were so badly doctored.

[weegee]

Maybe Bela Pelosi will look into this culture of corruption, maybe? Maybe? Maybe?!!

[Robert A. Cook, PE]

Hmmmn.

Notice that the Israeli is portrayed as "reacting" to the murders, that he is saddened by what he is photogrpahing.

but the Palestinian photogrpaher is described as if he were on a crusade, on a "job" and is "driven" to report what he wants the world to see.

Interesting difference. But there's NO bias involved when Reuters USES Palestinian terrorists to GET and REPORT and DECIDE what news THEY will send to Reuters!

And, through Reuters, the rest of the world.

[weegee]

Here's a 5 minute clip of the 72 minute movie (from 2005) is on this film festival website:

http://fest06.sffs.org/films/film_details.php?id=83

(San Francisco International Film Festival)

http://www.context.tv/en/productions/media/calling_01.mov

Someone ping LGF to this information, it may help him in researching Reuters.

[TaxRelief]

The new Reuters "guidelines" are very telling:

Where possible, ask your regional or global picture desks to perform any required further Photo-shopping on their calibrated hi-resolution screens...

(snip)

...All photographers should understand the limitations of their laptop screens and their working environments.

---

Translation: We got snagged because of screen resolution. All pixel-manipulation should be performed on high tech gear to reduce the risk of being caught.

[driftdiver]

"If someone is dismissed but nobody knows who was dismissed, is anyone dismissed?"

Depends

[george76]

Apparently Reuters freelancer Adnan Hajj produced hundreds of photos...

We are still waiting for them.

[george76]

Her husband ''just happens'' to own a big chunk of land which used to belong to the Federal Government (us taxpayers): Hunters Point Naval Shipyards.

Her protégé, Gavin Newsom, current Mayor of San Francisco, is trying to strike up a deal where the San Francisco 49ers will get that land and stay in the city, rather than moving to Santa Clara and building a new stadium down there.

But there seems to be some problem with the Naval shipyard being a Superfund cleanup site.

Stand by for developments as the blinkless wonder simultaneously cleans up corruption in Congress, and finds a way around this ''Inconvenient Truth.''

[Grampa Dave]

Bush's fault.

Next that pyscho Rat congressman will be blaming Rove, LGF and Free Republic for the doctored photos.

[george76]

They are going to work harder to fool us in the future :

Translation: We got snagged because of screen resolution.

All pixel-manipulation should be performed on high tech gear to reduce the risk of being caught.

[Grampa Dave]

"If someone is dismissed but nobody knows who was dismissed, is anyone dismissed?"

Exactly, whenever any organization says that they have punished or dismissed a wrong doer and refuses to identify them, nothing happened. It is just more BS.

[RJL]

why won’t they release the editor’s name?

LOL... It's Reuters, so it's all too possible that they "fired" the unnamed editor to quell critics, then in recognition of the ex-editor's valiant effort to push forward Reuters "progressive" ideals, hired that same person as a Senior Vice President of Reuters.

/S

[Cementjungle]

I suspect the problem wasn't that the photos were doctored, it was that they were so badly doctored.

Getting caught = poor job performance.

[philetus]

"If someone is dismissed but nobody knows who was dismissed, is anyone dismissed?"

Depends"

What do adult diapers have to do with this?