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.
An excellent letter! I look forward to hearing the response. (But I won't hold my breath.)