Reuters drops freelance Lebanese photographer over image

Reuters ^ | 06 Aug 2006 | Reuters

[right-wingin_It]

WTF??

Boy, this Hajj fella was busy staging plenty photographs. So he got there just in time to snap this picture of a 50% burned Koran, eh?

[Dallas59]

[oxcart]

You are the best, ROTFLMAO.

[Joan Kerrey]

Reuters has strict standards of manipulation of images
They must be doctored in such a way that won't cause suspicion. "Don't get caught" says Reuters handbook covering spinning, doctoring and deceit.

[TheSpaceCoyote]

That photo isn't quite right either, Dallas. I clearly see two objects that should be natural but have obviously been touched up by human hands .... right by the letters "IDF".

[Irish Eyes]

Glad to see Harry Potter on the job. Voldemort and his Death Eaters are on the march again.

[Vince Ferrer]

The most important thing is to log all changes, of course. It isn't required, but a crippled version would reduce the temptation to cheat, and it would let the photographer know exactly what the standards of the news organization are regarding manipulation, because the standards are the limitations of the software.

I also think it is a process issue, to split the photographer from the image manipulation as part of checks and balances, the way an editor position is supposed to work. News organizations should handle images the way banks handle money. Bank employees can't just grab handfulls of money out of the safe. There is a process that always will involve other prople and a paper trail. Here, the standards are the process. Circumventing the process violates the standards. Honest employees, which most are, use the process and are in no danger.

If information and trust is your business, you take it more seriously than Reuters is.

[Dallas59]

That's just a conspiracy theory...;-)

[hsalaw]

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

Oh dear; I laughed so hard I almost fell off my chair! The thought of Reuters having any "strict standards of accuracy" is truly laughable!

[Da Mav]

humblegunner Good photo, I'm sure we can use it. We just removed a few dust specks using Photoshop to enhance the effect of the rescue effort against the monstrous Zionists. Reuters Bureau Chief

[Enchante]

Good catch!! That has to be one of the most obviously staged photos yet..... no way a photographer shows up just at the instant a Koran is so conveniently 1/2 burned. A few seconds later and it would all be gone..... a few seconds earlier and he would have been able to rescue the precious Koran. Oh, yes, maybe it is just the serendipity of being a great wartime photographer that allows for an image like that one.

[eeevil conservative]

thanks- I threw them all an email

I don't expect to hear back from them.....

;-)

[FreedomCalls]

Lots of examples here:

http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/research/digitaltampering/

[Woodman]

If you know anything about photography it is a digital photo. Film photo reproduction might be subject to bad indexing during multiple print exposures, but digital has no such limitation.

BS Through and through. Reuters knows better and is just using it as an excuse. This is similar to the superscript argument on the Rathergate memos, yes it is posiblesomeone could have done it, bit it would take Herculean effort to make hose kinds of errors.

[prairiebreeze]

Reuters is just miffed that they got caught.

Chalk up another one for the blogosphere. The REAL media of the 21st century...and beyond.

[ChiMark]

The suspicion of doctoring these photos was posted yesterday
on FR. I beleive it was Little green footballs but regardless
the Freeper poster was ahead of everyone else!

[StAnDeliver]

Al-Reuters -- The DUmmies Guide to Making a Small Fortune Out of a Big Fortune.
Another (Last Century Dinosaur) One Bites The Dust

[Dutchgirl]

Someone needs to photoshop a litle "Will ululate for cash" sign to hang around her neck...either that or put a Heineken in each hand!

[Prince Caspian]

Reuters is standing by the Qana photos by using the reaction to this photo as proof that they are honest.

A variation of the "limited hangout" technique.

[Carl LaFong]

"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."

"Yeahhhh.....that's the ticket!