Reuters Photo Is A Fraud? (Vanity with pics)

091505 | Me

[antaresequity]

Rueters Photo A Fraud?

First off the handwriting isn't Bush's...

Look at the first image and compare the 'I'..it appears as if the lower writing is indeed his, but

not the crap about the bathroom break...

Further...when the image is enhanced and sharpened...you can begin to see the blocks of cut and

paste graphics, and their obviosu demarcations...The lower image has been sharpened in fireworks by

three or four degrees...you can see clearly square demarcations around the supposed text..

[ohioWfan]

Mo.........the more I think about this, the funnier it gets.

Let's suppose the note is real (I know..........it's a stretch). There is a photographer for Reuters so totally juvenile that he takes a pic of the note and crops it so the note is larger. Then the writing is enhanced. Then it gets to an editor who looks at it, and decides to publish it.

Every step of the way, these people are five year old morons. Who, with half a brain, tries to embarrass the leader of the free world with the fact that he goes to the bathroom?? Who will think less of him if this is a real photo? Who is so immature that they actually would use this to belittle the President?

The entire left has lost its collective mind. They are no longer a force to be reckoned with, because they are all absolutely, totally insane.

I'm really enjoying this one. :)

[Leroy S. Mort]

Obviously fake. Everyone knows Karl Rove does all the President's bathroom breaks.

[MikefromOhio]

bookmark...

I think we may have a new Buckhead if they are dumb enough to run this story :)

[Jaded]

In that other pic he's not holding a yellow #2 #1 #2 pencil.

[Halls]

Even if it is a fake, who cares?? Everyone goes to the bathroom for one reason or another. Maybe George had an upset stomach for pete's sakes. Going to the bathroom is news? This has got the be the stupidest thing a MSM is pulling now!

[faq]

I took the picture and enlarged it with Paint Shop Pro and it was not pixelated like in your picture. I think that effect is due to your settings and sharpening of the picture. Don't think that is evidence of a fake.

[tumblindice]

Roto-rooters lied? Say it ain't so! Next it'll be that we can't trust the New York Times. Oh, the huge manateee!
(Kids today . . . .)

[blogblogginaway]

Hershorn says The (Toronto) Globe and Mail published it but he wasn't sure of any other outlets. Hershorn says he decided to transmit the picture because it was interesting.

"There was no malicious intent," he says. "That's not what we do."

Link please? TIA

[Melas]

Well, the demarcations that you think are signs of cut and paste are just digital artifacts common to .jpg compression. Test it out yourself.

[Tall_Texan]

I don't understand why somebody would go to that much trouble? It's not like faking ANG records or claiming Bush lied about WMDs. What's the point of "faking" that Bush needs to use the restroom? Doesn't everybody?

[sanemom]

I thought Bush was Rove's puppet-do puppets take bathroom breaks?

[Nea Wood]

A long time ago, I read that Bush used to attend Texas Ranger games and would not get up to go to the bathroom the entire time. Does he ever go?

Seriously, if someone was going to fake a note to make him look bad, they could have come up with something more scandalous than needing to take a bathroom break!

[July 4th]

Bush didn't write the top note. Condoleeza Rice did.

I think that's exactly right. People are missing the fact that there are two different sets of handwriting there.

[dfwgator]

True. But if they manipulate something like this, it begs the question. What else have they manipulated?

[johnny7]

I see it... I see it! It says;

Benteen,

Come quick
big village, bring packs.

PS: Bring pacs

[sanemom]

That is the truly bizarre part.

[M203M4]

I have no doubt that the picture is edited in some way (if the lighting wasn't ideal, and since a flash would have been useless at the likely distance, they would have brightened the image artificially afterwards with software). But I doubt it is a complete fabrication. It would take someone five minutes in MS Paint (forget Photoshop) to fix up the artifacts here and save it in a not as lossy format (the closer to raw the better).

Just underneath the pencil, there IS some JPEG artifact. The greater the difference in the color between two regions, the larger the artifact will be. So for black on white, those really clear artifacts should be expected.

As an experiment, take a picture (or find a picture) of handwriting in raw format and then save it as JPEG. In my experience, these artifacts, even at this intensity, are something that cannot be avoided.

That unfortunately gives cover to some forms of doctoring. I am NOT an expert on this sort of photo manipulation (I have some experience developing image compression algorithms), but I am sure that there are people who can tell the difference between artifacts and more sinister things...I cannot.

[PeaceBeWithYou]

Condi won.

[Blueflag]

Drudge has a (non-working) link stating that Reuters has acknowledged the phot was enhanced....

[jigsaw]

Click on "faq" page to read "Things you may have forgotten about Iraq."

That is a great Freeper page you've created. Thanks for the resource!