This just in. They're running scared. Very scared...
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002985833
'Wash Post' Ombud: Lebanon Photos Not Manipulated There
By E&P Staff
Published: August 12, 2006 4:10 PM ET
NEW YORK In a column for the Sunday editon, Deborah Howell, ombudsman for The Washington Post, reveals that a review of the published photos from the Middle East conflict found that apparently none had been manipulated.
Bloggers who supported Israel's widescale bombing in Lebanon and others have raised questions about such manipulaton after two photos by a Reuters freelancer were found to be doctored last week.
But Howell's review of war photos published in The Post "didn't show any obvious manipulation," she writes.
Several readers questioned the July 31 photo of the 18 dead at Qana, mostof them children, and said they'd read that the photo had been staged. But Post photographer Michael Robinson-Chavez who was there told Howell, "Everyone was dead, many of them children. Nothing was set up. There was no way photos could have been altered with a dozen photographers there."
Howell writes that along with two photo editors she reviewed many photos from Qana. "Only one photo, not published, looked staged -- of a rescue worker holding a dead child up for the camera." It was taken by the same photographer fired by Reuters this week.
Beyond dispute, in any case, is that several hundred Lebanese civilians have been killed in the bombing.
Post photo editors are "cautious" about Middle East photos, Howell explains. She quotes Joe Elbert, assistant managing editor for photos: "You can't take things at face value. Some freelance photographers lack journalistic training. They are not operating under the same standards as most photographers throughout the world."
Post policy, like that at other news sources, prohibits altering photos.
E&P Staff (letters@editorandpublisher.com)
Paraphrasing Ronald Reagan, regarding MSM stories readers probably ought to distrust but verify on the off chance that a MSM journalistTM actually let a grain of truth accidentally slip out.
Thanks for that. It made my blood boil! So here's the letter I just sent them:
I take great umbrage in your characterising critics as
people who support "Israel's widescale bombing." We
are simply citizens who want and demand truth and
accuracy from our media.
In that regard, perhaps you can get Mr.
Robinson-Chavez to explain this recently released
video from Germany's NDR "Zapp" television show which
contains incontrovertible video evidence of staging at
Qana:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vPAkc5CLgc
Perhaps he would respond to these comments from one of
his fellow photographers in Lebanon Mr. Bryan Denton:
"I have been working in Lebanon since all this
started, and seeing the behavior of many of the
Lebanese wire service photographers has been a bit
unsettling.
While Hajj has garnered a lot of attention for his
doctoring of images digitally, whether guilty or not,
I have been witness to the daily practice of directed
shots, one case where a group of wire photogs were
choreographing the unearthing of bodies, directing
emergency workers here and there, asking them to
position bodies just so, even remove bodies that have
already been put in graves so that they can photograph
them in peoples arms. These photographers have come
away with powerful shots, that required no
manipulation digitally, but instead, manipulation on a
human level, and this itself is a bigger ethical
problem.
Whatever the case is — lack of training, a personal
drive as a photographer to show what is happening to
your country in as powerful a way as possible, or all
out competitiveness, I think that the onus is on the
wire services themselves, because they act as the
employer/filter of their photogs work. Standards
should be in place or else the rest of us end up
paying the price. And I'm not against the idea of
local wire photographers, but after seeing it over and
over for the past month, I think it is something that
is worth addressing. While I walk away from a
situation like that, one wire shooter sets up a
situation, and the rest of them follow..."
He can read and respond to Mr. Denton here at a place
where professional International news photographers
gather:
http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/show/staged_shots_from_lebanon_please_coment
Perhaps while he's at it he would also be kind enough
to explain this evidence gathered by British
journalist Richard D. North, one of the founding
writers of The Independent and later writer for the
Sunday Times, and currently media fellow at the
Institute of Economic Affairs in London:
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2006/08/corruption-of-media.html
The days of monopoly control over information are
over.