Men at work ( More Adnan Hajj fake photos )

Power line ^ | August 07, 2006 | Scott

[george76]

Page 1 above the fold in yesterday's New York Times featured a photo (below) by our new acquaintance Adnan Hajj.

I suspect that not all is as it appears to be in the photo, and somehow doubt that Times readers will ever learn why that might be the case.

The Reuters caption reads: "A severely wounded Lebanese civilian is carried away on a stretcher at Maameltain bridge, after it was targeted by Israeli air strikes, in the north of Beirut August 4, 2006. (Adnan Hajj/Reuters)" (Thanks to reader David Butz.)

[Cdnexpat]

The stretcher is supported you can see the hands holding it in the lower right corner. The "victim's" position seems odd for a seriously injured person, the lack of blood or bandages also seems odd however it is posible the photo is legit. I cannot account for the missing trees. The main point is all these photos are now suspect, it is up to Reuters to prove they are real. Reuters pulled all the photos so it is clear that they no longer have any faith in any of them. IMO it is up to the people who still think they are real to prove that the are in fact legit. It is no longer up to us to show they are faked.

[AliVeritas]

Bam, Fox just televised three other photos we're working on... re: staging of sites by Hizzies. About time they got to the staging. I've got a lot of video to email out... will post them all again when I dig them out. Ping me to any additional staging vids.

[r9etb]

What SEVERLY wounded oersob has his head "raised up" and looking at the camera???

I think it's probably a mistake to discuss the wording of the caption in relation to the picture itself.... "Severely wounded" could mean a lot of real things -- severe leg wounds, for example, which wouldn't be visible in this picture. Or "severely wounded" could be an exaggeration on the part of Mr. Hajj.

But either way, I don't think we can assess the picture from the caption.

[rabidralph]

How come people that lose their houses are never looking at their houses when they pose like this?

[ByDesign]

"What SEVERLY wounded oersob has his head "raised up" and looking at the camera???"
"I think it's probably a mistake to discuss the wording of the caption in relation to the picture itself.... "Severely wounded" could mean a lot of real things -- severe leg wounds, for example, which wouldn't be visible in this picture. Or "severely wounded" could be an exaggeration on the part of Mr. Hajj."

I suspect, if the shot is real, the wierd angles are a result of the man fighting being on the stretcher, and being lifter over a wall - if he was a victim of the blast, then he's probably more than a little scatterbrained, and and CMT can tell you have the job is keeping people ON a stretcher and not doing further damage from thrashing around and trying to get off the stretcher.

However, it's clear what the usgae of the photo is supposed to do, make us feel sorry for the civilians, and make us hate Isreal.

I'm sorry civilians get involved, but seeing these shots does not effect my support of Isreal, what they're doing, and WHY.

As for Photoshopping, I'm a pro-level Photoshop user. I've done composites professionally where nobody could tell I was in there editing. If this was edited, it's a VERY good job, and says to me be very wary of any shots coming out of that part of teh world (I'm already cynical about our press, if you knew how much manipulation is done just for celebrity photos...)

But, i don't see any of the tell-tales - edge pixels (the pixels along a cropped or maked edge often have a different "noise", and don't quit sit well, one way to combat this is to give the final composited image a pass of grain to blend it all in. The lighting is consistent throughout, and the angles all match up reasonably. Like i said, if it was a photoshop of a different background and foreground elements, it's very good.

It's hard to say without the original, highres image, but from what i can see from the lo-res jpeg, it's probably not Photoshopped.

Staged? Good question.

A ploy? Guaranteed.

[rabidralph]

It's a magic carpet stretcher.

[null and void]

Is it OK?

Is it OK????

Spread it as wide and far as you can!!!!!

[MinuteGal]

IMO, the dude on the stretcher is long gone to the virgins. Rigor mortis accounts for the raised head, the rigid arms (why isn't the one arm flopping down?).

Even to me, an "amateur detective", this is a lousy superimposition job.

Phooey to those who don't like the work of FR sleuths. We hone our skills of observation to outsmart the enemy. As Sherlock Holmes might say about placid slugs who view war today's war photos with naivity, "They hear, but do not listen.....they look, but do not see."

The game's afoot, my dear Watsons!

Leni

[r9etb]

Good post.

[TSchmereL]

You should relax. There is no such thing as wasted bandwidth. This post is sincere well-deserved skepticism. The photo looks staged because this person looks like he is acting, not bloody, just dirty.

[george76]

To quote another...

Fake, photoshopped or not, so long as Reuters, AP, and the rest of the lamestream media keep using arab stringers we will only be seeing the islamo side of middle eastern affairs.

[null and void]

Watson, you fool! Somebody stole our tent!!!

[Suzy Quzy]

I don't think that photo is altered or Photoshopped....I think it's staged. The man has his head raised, looking at the camera, and his dirtiness is even under his shirt. Fake.

[rfp1234]

The dude in the plaid shirt, at far right, looks suspiciously like Iran Pres. "Amazingjihad".

[RandallFlagg]

I was about to say the same thing. I've seen many stretchers with handles on the rods like this one. This particular pic looks legit.
That said, I still do not trust the enemedia.

[RandallFlagg]

It's called a wall.

It looks more like a truck's bed. They might have been putting the stretcher into a truck for transport.

[groovejedi]

"Is this the standard "I lost my house" pose in Lebanon?"


That's the funniest thing I've read all day.

[Grampa Dave]

No Problem! Here comes your Bomb!

[LexBaird]

Here is a different photo from Maameltain bridge. Let's do a side-by-side comparison and see if anything looks odd:

The left side of the pic shows hills and grass up to the "glasses guy". The horizon is different on the right side. I would guess the "city" was dropped into the background.

[weegee]

(NY Times) Media Schadenfreude and Media Shenanigans PING

Page 1 above the fold in yesterday's New York Times featured a photo (below) by our new acquaintance Adnan Hajj.

And dated August 4th, Reuters.

More photos of Green Helmet Guy. I wonder if he's employed by Reuters too.

Remember the Baby Milk Factory, folks.