Posted on 10/03/2011 10:51:20 PM PDT by Wayne07
A fellow skeptic (President of the Granite State Skeptics Travis Roy) recently posted a request on the Skeptoid mailing list regarding an image that has been making the rounds on Facebook. The image is an aerial shot of a supposedly huge turnout for the Occupy Wall St protest against corruption and greed. What appears to be thousands of protesters clog the streets of New York near the City Hall, with a caption stating:
Occupy Wall Street Turnout: My TV says nothing. The only thing I hear is its [sic] a small 100 person turn out. Turn off your TV. Ask your friends. Dont [sic] trust the media they lie!After a request from Wettstein (and a warning from my hosting provider) I have removed his plagiarised propaganda image from my site. However the original can be found on Google Image Search.
My skeptical colleague saw this image and immediately smelled something fishy. Travis noticed that the image was an aerial photo of New York City Hall, whereas the protests were happening several blocks away at Liberty Square. He sent the image to the mailing list for other opinions. To my eyes the mass of protesters looked out of place, the crowd looked too uniform and dense to be real. I took the image into Photoshop to see if I could pick up any pattern to the image. My original thought was that they had used the clone tool to make a smaller group of people look much larger. Not being able to find anything obvious, I started to wonder where the background plate may have come from. Immediately Google Maps came to mind. I looked up the location featured in the image, and then I saw it: [...]
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.timparkinson.net ...
debunked:
I was lurking at DU when someone posted this last week and they busted it immediately.
REFUSE. RESIST. Do NOT Submit! ★FREEDOM!★
Darn I keep getting a site overload message.
No, no, no...
Don’t you understand how liberals think?
This represents VIRTUAL PROSESTORS, people who support them online, but can’t actually BE there!
(Seriously... This was the excuse on Daily Kos)
Kinda like Ron Paul Internet and straw poll supporters.
Living in the suburbs of Chicago is Heaven compared to being near these hippie freaks!!!
The comments after the blog post are astounding, especially the ones made by the loser who made the fake photos and attempts to justify his lies. Unbelievable.
Seeing this and recalling Obama’s birth certificate, it’s official... Democrats are terrible at Photoshop.
I was in Zucutti Plaza last week for three days, just watching the madness. There were never more than 200 or so people there at any one time, and streets around it were running normally.
I live in downtown L.A. and have been reading the the Occupy LA Facebook page. While some have been claiming 1000s in attendance, some others in the group have been saying to tell the truth - it has been no more than 200 tops. I’ve driven by their camp out twice in the past couple of days. No more than 10-15 tents and no more than 50 or so people out there (in prime time daylight hours).
Tea party members: Our cameras tell the truth. Post the truth.
That’s a good eye.
Was this a Reuters “photo”?
But these losers aren't helping. At best, they serve as cheap, slapstick entertainment.
Waldo is a worthless POS.
Very good eyes! But, I wonder one thing. Why did the police say they arrested 700 protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge this past weekend if there were only a few hundred in the streets? Or, was that a different day?
Bttt
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