Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Back ...

To see that DFH, with occasional input from sharp-eyed David at Cabarfeidh, has deservedly hit the blogging big-time.

Everyone on the right of blogdom, and the honest souls on the left, assumed that Hezbollah and their allies were managing the news out of Southern Lebanon, and particularly the deaths at Qana, for maximum political effect. DFH and a number of other blogs have documented several instances of faked or posed photos, including the unluckiest multiple property owner in Beirut, the cameraman who added extra smoke to a picture for full devastation impact (and changed the flare from an Israeli jet to a shower of missiles), the mysterious 'white tee shirt' and 'green helmet man' who seemed to be in every Qana photo. If you want to see where the Independent gets its front page images from, look here.

EU Referendum has been doing sterling work. What worries him is that people like Shane Richmond of the Daily Telegraph aren't worried by this manipulation.

"…is the child dead? was the child killed by Israeli bombs? If so, the picture illustrates the story"

For Richard North "... the root is that death – or pictures of death - have become a commodity. For Hezbolla, they can be traded for political leverage, for the photo-journalists – those who are not working for Hezbolla – a good "snap" of a dead baby brings the prospect of financial reward, fame and even awards. And, at the top of the heap are the editors and the likes of Shane Richmond, in their air-conditioned offices, thousands of miles away from the action, who see the "pics" merely as illustrations for their productions."

UPDATE - Liberal Larry attacks the "Digital Brownshirts" who "used the debatable authenticity of the photos to cast doubt upon their accuracy."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ive been away so the only news Ive seen is BBc News24 on satellite. One would think watching the Beeb that the IDF had got bored one day and decided to invade Lebanon with the sole intention of killing women & children. They also talk about Lebanon is if it were Switzerland. Any divisions there are completely glossed over. And John Simpson, geez, the more I see him huffing & puffing away the more I want to slap his stupid fat face. He keeps telling us about the former peaceful prosperous towns of the Lebanon. John, please, just once remind us that they were peaceful/prosperous because they were Christian. But no thats too difficult for John.

Anonymous said...

I think that should read 'For Richard North...'