Thats totally disgraceful.
I hope Reuters gets its ass kicked for this one.

Submitted to Reuters Staff:

"I fancy myself a rather adept PhotoShop user. My services are pretty cheap and using me here in the States would likely not arouse the suspicion of using Mid East vendors.

Since integrity is obviously no longer an issue with Reuters, feel free to drop me a line and we can discuss terms."

Reuters has issued a 'kill' of the 'shoped photo... and they also have apparently found the original. I think it's time to question management as to if it's their policy to hire/contract journalist or activists.

Seems they hired a better artist :)

The fact that the H. can opertate in Christian East Beirut shows how clearly the Christians have been defeated.

I remember some years ago the Gereral in command of what was left the Lebanese army (as opposed to one of the Chrisitian militia groups) led some resistance to the Syrians - but he was outgunned, unsupported by the West, and defeated.

Dancing "babes" are no substitute for armed force and the will to use it.

I doubt the Chrisitians have a future in Lebanon, sucking up to the H. (for example by some Chrisitians saying how much they hate the Jews) will not help them in the long term - any more than it helped the Christian population of Gaza or the "West Bank".

Most of the Christian Arabs in these areas are either dead or long gone - just a few are left (to be put on the media from time to time in order to say how much they hate Israel - rather than the forces that have almost wiped out their communities).

I think this was more an illustration of the danger of hiring stringers than editorial malice on the part of Reuters...

They made a mistake, it was corrected. Hopefully if they keep getting them pointed out they'll pay more careful attention or revise the way they gather news in these regions.

Regards
The Dude

I think this was more an illustration of the danger of hiring stringers than editorial malice on the part of Reuters...

I never thought it was editorial 'malice' from Reuters, more a case of wilful negligence brought on by wanting to see sensational news (which after all sells better).

Take a look at the image in question... it is so obviously photoshopped (i.e. badly) that for that to have made the cut suggests the bar is set EXTREMELY low. Yes I realise Reuters see a huge number of images per day but that really is no excuse to let yourself be used as a propaganda adjunct of Hezbollah.

http://editorial.gettyimages.com/source/search/details_pop.aspx?iid=71595544&cdi=0

Another media lie. Every one knows that rockets dont fall in same site. And they dont even have enough fuel to fall with engine on.

lckylucky, those look like outgoing rockets to me!

Yes they are. You can even see the back tip of one. Now compare with the text.

I concur and have written to Getty images for 'clarification'. My take is that is a picture of outgoing Hezbollah rockets. I will keep you posted if I get a reply.

Thanks Perry.

I never thought it was editorial 'malice' from Reuters, more a case of wilful negligence brought on by wanting to see sensational news (which after all sells better)....

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply you did. Although reading through comments on other sites, people seem all too willing to attribute it to this.

I'm sufficiently cynical, though, that I tend not to think any level of incompetence is out of reach of any sufficiently bureaucratic organisation!

Sigh.... So much for blockquote, damn open source browsers!

Editor: no worries, I figured out what you intended and added them for you

There are two and only two possible conclusions about AlReuters and the Haji photo: !. They are knowingly and deliberately accepting falsified images that serve their propaganda goal; or 2. The Reuters editor/ fact checking process is so inept and incapable that they were unable to spot an obvious piece of agitprop fakery.
Either choice is sufficient to eliminate all faith in further
information provided from AlReuters.

Gray One:
There is a third possibility, a 'tweener'. That is that the normal fact-checking is subliminally suspended when one sees something he's predisposed to believe already. I don't believe the TXANG forgeries were done deliberately by See BS staff; they were just too good to check. Something similar might be going on here.

The lesson that news organizations should take away from this sort of debacle is that submissions should be vetted by several diferent judges, deliberately selected to have differing biases. When a story purporting to make a Republican look bad comes along, you'd better have an in-house Repo to ask tough questions before you air the piece. When a picture depicting the extent of IAF strikes comes across your desk, running it past a Zionist (someone who supports the existence of the state of Israel) is a good idea. If you don't have someone representing those positions within your organization, you're vulnerable to becoming an echolocation chamber.

Monster, I'd not call that anything but a special case of my second option, i.e. "inept and incapable" editor/fact check process. The reasons for their ineptitude could be many and varied, but to me at least , AlReuters cannot escape being either deliberately culpable or incompetently culpable . They are trying to pass this off as a mistake solely on the part of the Haji. Reuters needs to be faced with their own failure to control their process. After all, they ARE part of the big MSM multiple layer editor and fact checking machine. What would the MSM response be to bloggers making such an inexcusable error ?

Gray One