Aish, an Israel-based organization, has recently released a flash video that highlights what it claims could evidence of a systematic campaign to distort the truth about what’s happening in Lebanon in ways that are anti-Israel.
Granted, the source should be considered, as certainly they have a vested interest in this situation and in painting Israel as the victim in all of this. But it’s already clear that a gigantic fraud has been widely publicized involving at least two photos. So one must ask: is there a Hezbollah propaganda machine in the works here?
At the very least, the implications dn’t bode well for newsgathering organizations. it seems clear that in their rush to gather news, they have failed to put in basic checks to at least deter photo fraud by significantly increasing it complexity. For isntance, allowing a photojournalist to send in only a Photoshopped JPG or TIF of their work is a very shoddy policy, in my opinion. A the very least, a RAW output from the camera, or a digital negative should be required before a photo is considered for filing, helping to ensure the photo is authentic (or if faked, at least they did a damn good job and spent a lot of time and effort).
The issue of the Beirut “smoke” photo and the fact it even made it to press greatly disturbs me. Do the folks at Reuters know that PhotoShop exists? And even if they didn’t, did they not find it somewhat odd that the smoke was a bit… artificial and repetitive? Did anyone even bother to look at the photographer’s work before it was published?
That picture gave me a good chuckle…I hadn’t seen it before and, as a result, didn’t quite expect to see something so…obviously faked, really.
Only way it could have been worse is if there were a little signature, avatar, etc, in a corner of the picture and the words “lozl izza fake” somewhere within the photograph itself.