It doesn't take a particle physics major to understand and recognize the duplicate smoke plume patterns - stamped four times over, from left to right. If you look closely at the bottom of the pic you'll also see apartment buildings that are duplicated, along the bottom edge. This is wholly intentional. It's not an artifact of sending the photo in bits and bytes across the ether - otherwise the whole photo would be equally scrambled.
But what was more distressing is that I found it incredibly hard to report this to anyone. Not hard, like "Should I?", but hard like "Where the hell do I find a person to take this up and investigate? Where is CNN's contact info?" etc. In the end I sent a comment to REUTERS (who published it), CNN (as a news tip) and flickr (so I could at least get it "public"). Haven't heard a peep from anyone. So faking news isn't news anymore.
News has gotten so bad, so sensationalistic that even it outdoes itself in its own moribund blindness, its manipulation of fact as fiction - "Hey Adam, What do you think? Is this bombing picture really not showing enough violence? Let's amp up that smoke!!!" (click, click, click...) Ta da! But what does this mean when looking at the news then? News as product only? Does the backstory mean so little that dead Lebanese don't matter so much as how dead they might look or how violently they died. And it seems we are so immune to the idea of peace in the world that in order for us to care we have to take something as horrific as war and ENHANCE its horrors just to get our attention. There's something Baudriallardian going on here but I'll leave that "uber blah blah" for another day. I think I'll puke in an envelope and send it to REUTERS to make it more clear how disgusted I am with them.
2 comments:
Puke in a takeout container. Have it delivered to Reuters office. Be sure to include a little plastic spoon. Add a few cockroaches and some extra peas. He probably STILL won't get it.
I have to admit that I'm incredibly shocked and disappointed that this sort of fakery made it into print. Seriously, if you and I can spot this as a fake just glancing at it, how did it make it past their alleged 'editorial' staff and editing process?
Would be a good lesson for journalism schools to discuss, since these sorts of episodes cast doubt on the profession and its ability to be truthful, accurate, and responsible in reporting.
Unfortunately, this sort of thing can also be abused/manipulated by those who wish to contend that we in fact never landed on the moon, faked the Holocaust, etc., etc.
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