Crossposted at The S.N.A.F.U. Principle
Wingnuttia is atwitter and aghast that a photographer has been caught altering photos in a propaganda drenched war zone. It is imperative not to get hung up on the particulars of the Photoshopping, although both Sadly No! and Bob Harris make salient points worth noting.
The real meat of the story here is how it was reported and how it has developed into a familiar propaganda campaign wielded with agile skill by the rightie bloggers and the conservative news outlets. It plays into their common themes: The media is liberal, liberals are terrorists. All of them. First, some background:
More below the fold...
Apparently a freelance photographer in Lebanon named Adnan Hajj has been doctoring photos with Photoshop. He's been a photog on the Reuters local Beirut gig for at least six years or so. This is the kind of thing that only shocks the right-wing. Personally, I completely understand that, like every other industry on the planet, there are people within the media who are practicing less than honest forms of reporting.
I wrote on this awhile back on Jakeneck, when the New York Times printed a fabricated quote from the Dalai Lama as fact. In September 2003, the NY Times reported that the Dalai Lama had said in an interview that "it might be necessary to fight terrorists with violence". No such quote was ever made by the Dalai Lama. It was amazingly obvious at the time, yet it went relatively unnoticed by the MSM or NY Times watchdogs, on the left or the right, as did the rather pointed letter from His Holiness to the New York Times stating in no uncertain terms that the NY Times reporter had made up the quote. Obviously, the Dalai Lama saying, not in quotes mind you, that "violence is necessary" is news, but the fact that it was a made up lie to push forward the neocon agenda is not news, because it didn't serve their purpose.
Well, the current story du jour of an apparent Lebanese propagandist with a penchant for shoddy Photoshopping was broken by the propaganda goon trust at Little Green Footballs. (Funny how this stuff always gets discovered by them. How lucky they are! Takes one to know one?) What is important to focus upon is how the headlines and the telling of the story was immediately an anti-media and anti-liberal story rather than a story with unanswered questions to be investigated and answered. It was never a search for truth. It was and continues to be a story misrepresented by a reptitive yet affective propaganda technique in order to push the right wing agenda. In this case, the agenda has a familiar goal: destroy what they perceive as a liberal news outlet. It is tried and true.
The first headline from LGF set the tone in a fairly proper way actually:
Reuters doctoring photos from Beirut?
This was picked up by the wingnut blogsphere, repeated ad nauseum and more importantly, altered from a proper question to a hardcore accusation without any facts to back it up:
Reuters faking photos.
Jihad Media, Literally
Al-Reuters Doctors War Photos In Lebanon
Photoshopping The News - Reuters Blows Smoke Up Our...
Reuters calls the doctor
Reutergate!
Now, of course, at the time, the right wing puppets didn't know who was responsible for the actual photoshopping of the photo in question. It could have been someone at Reuters, it could have been the photographer or it could have been someone else, an intermediary perhaps? Yet, the wingnuts saw a little "bash the MSM" daylight and ran with that ball.
Then, it gets really interesting.
Reuters retracts the photo with a statement that read:
Photo editing software was improperly used on this image. A corrected version will immediately follow this advisory. We are sorry for any incontinence... Reuters has suspended a photographer until investigations are completed into changes made to a photograph showing smoke billowing from buildings following an air strike on Beirut. Reuters takes such matters extremely seriously as it is strictly against company editorial policy to alter pictures.... As soon as the allegation came to light, the photograph, filed on Saturday 5 August, was removed from the file and a replacement, showing the same scene, was sent. The explanation for the removal was the improper use of photo-editing software.
Yet, what is the headline from
the article from Ynetnews.com that contains the above statement? (Which was
very heavily linked to by the rightie blog dogs.)
Reuters admits altering Beirut photo
Subtle. But, damning and important. The headline continues to push the propaganda point that Reuters altered the photo, even after they establish in a statement that the photographer is the source of the Photoshopping.
And, of course, this wording was picked up by the wingnut blogsphere, good puppets all.
And, then any subsequent photos by Adnan Hajj are faked by Reuters, not Hajj.
Does Reuters bare responsibility? Of course. Obviously there is a problem if a Photoshopped picture gets through the editing process. We live in a world where outlets such as Reuters have to take heed or become unwilling pawns.
Of course, discovering a propaganda maker doesn't stop the self proclaimed "citizen journalists" of Wingnuttia from engaging in their own disinformation.
And, from the Jeruselem Post? The right wing mantra on this issue:
Reuters admits doctoring Beirut photo
Not "Reuters admits that photographer doctored photo" but a headline which implies that Reuters did the doctoring, a point which the known facts, to date, do not support.
Members of the rightie blogsphere and the right wing media are using methods of deception in order to convert minds to their way of thinking. They are employing methods equally as deceptive as Adnan Hajj has used.
Many on the right will implore "Our cause is greater! We are on the side of good!" But, alas, when everyone who disagrees with you is the enemy, then you have become your own worst enemy, for you've lost the true art of creating a coalition and converting people to your cause because it is just and right and true. If you have to resort to deception to covert, then perhaps your agenda and that which you believe in is suspect.
Truth worth fighting for reveals itself to everyman. False truths do not reveal themselves, they falter. We are currently ruled by those who believe in false truths and they are empowered by members of the media and the blogsphere who trumpet their propaganda and lies and make up their own in order to ensure that power. Always remember there are many who would proffer lies to us all for a few gold coins or for the support of those they worship and look to for guidance and self worth.
They shall not turn truth into darkness.
And so it goes...