Reuters drops freelance Lebanese photographer over image

Reuters ^ | 06 Aug 2006 | Reuters

[PajamaTruthMafia]

LONDON, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Reuters, the global news and information agency, told a freelance Lebanese photographer on Sunday it would not use any more of his pictures after he doctored an image of the aftermath of an Israeli air strike on Beirut.

The photograph by Adnan Hajj, which was published on news Web sites on Saturday, showed thick black smoke rising above buildings in the Lebanese capital after an Israeli air raid in the war with the Shi'ite Islamic group Hizbollah, now in its fourth week.

Reuters withdrew the doctored image on Sunday and replaced it with the unaltered photograph after several news blogs said it had been manipulated using Photoshop software to show more smoke.

Reuters has strict standards of accuracy that bar the manipulation of images in ways that mislead the viewer.

"The photographer has denied deliberately attempting to manipulate the image, saying that he was trying to remove dust marks and that he made mistakes due to the bad lighting conditions he was working under," said Moira Whittle, the head of public relations for Reuters.

"This represents a serious breach of Reuters' standards and we shall not be accepting or using pictures taken by him," Whittle said in a statement issued in London.

Hajj worked for Reuters as a non-staff freelance, or contributing photographer, from 1993 until 2003 and again since April 2005.

He was among several photographers from the main international news agencies whose images of a dead child being held up by a rescuer in the village of Qana, south Lebanon, after an Israeli air strike on July 30 have been challenged by blogs critical of the mainstream media's coverage of the Middle East conflict.

Reuters and other news organisations reviewed those images and have all rejected allegations that the photographs were staged.

[PajamaTruthMafia]

The first link isn't working.

Are you saying they are the same Ambulance? If so, I wouldn't be surprised. Probably the one Green Helmet works out of...

[Loyal Buckeye]

Reuters = Photorooters

[js1138]

Those are not the same image.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Where did you get Hillary's graduation picture from?

[observer5]

"Israeli air raid in the war with the Shi'ite Islamic group Hizbollah"

Anybody notice? its and "Islamic group" now!

[TheSpaceCoyote]

Try this for the first pic. The URL is http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4640/388/1600/qana%20025.jpg ... It's from http://www.eureferendum.blogspot.com/ ... under "Director's Cut", towards the end of the article. I'm just wondering how many Ambulance 125 pics might be out there that don't feature GHG.

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

Bill Burkett has already submitted his resume

[JewishRighter]

That's not Giant Patrick and SpongeBob trampling Beirut-those are the Elders of Zion, sent by the brutal Zionist Occupiers to squish the heads of the women, children and pensioners.

[bc4gwb]

Just eyeballing, but that one with the hole in the ceiling looks like BS to me. Notice the glow around the ceiling fan, like you'd see with the light on. It doesn't seem like that glow would be there with the light broken off the fan, and that light coming in through the hole doesn't look like it would make that ring around the fan.

I'm no expert, but it looks "off" to me.

[bc4gwb]

It had to be done:



Hey, it's no worse than Hajj's pwnd photoshop!

[PajamaTruthMafia]

Ccourtsey of Little Green Footballs and Cox & Forkum Editorial Cartoons

[freedumb2003]

Reuters drops freelance Lebanese photographer over image

From 30,000 feet?

[Tunehead54]

Reuters knew all along

---

Yep. How else did al-reuters come up with the unaltered pic so fast when they dumped the altered version? Hmmm? MSM burnt by the blogs again! :-)

[Screamname]

That is absolutely unreal...You can actually see the "cloning" of the smoke and this idiot just kept repeating it, the top of the smoke, the three top balls of smoke are all the same! lol! Like Carlos Mencia says "He`s Re-taaaaar-ded!"

[okie01]

If al-Reuters has such "high standards", why don't they have a photo editor who could spot the fakery as quickly as untrained readers did?

That is, immediately.

[Darkwolf377]

"The photographer has denied deliberately attempting to manipulate the image, saying that he was trying to remove dust marks and that he made mistakes due to the bad lighting conditions he was working under," said Moira Whittle, the head of public relations for Reuters.

Make room in the Lamest Excuses Hall of Fame for THAT one. It deseves a whole wing.

Funny how whenever somenoe is let go from the government in a scandal, Reuters and the rest always say a minor functionary has taken the fall, and the folks up top should be held accountable.

Guess it's "just different" if it's Reuters.

[mikrofon]

Green Helmet Guy is on the job...

[Hadean]

Reuters and other news organizations reviewed those images and have all rejected allegations that the photographs were staged.

I really wish I could remember where I had seen it, but I was at a site last night that discussed the time frames between all of the Qana shots of the child's body. The time frames suggested these were not photos of a body simply being moved from one place to another, such as from the scene straight to some other nearby location for further care. Time was taken to do this, suggesting there was ample time provided for plenty of photo opportunities.

[PajamaTruthMafia]

Your probably thinking of this:

http://www.eureferendum.blogspot.com/

Scroll down to Qana- The Director's cut

[tobyhill]

"The photographer has denied deliberately attempting to manipulate the image, saying that he was trying to remove dust marks and that he made mistakes due to the bad lighting conditions he was working under," said Moira Whittle, the head of public relations for Reuters.

The only reason he did this was to sensationalize the scene and I think he's just blowing smoke with this excuse. You don't clean up dust by cloning smoke.