Sunday, August 06, 2006

Caught in the Act   [George Conway]

Little Green Footballs uncovered a badly faked Reuters photograph of Beirut. Now Reuters has pulled the picture with an advisory stating:

PICTURE KILL FOR LBN20 TRANSMITTED AT APPROXIMATELY 1408GMT ON AUGUST 5, 2006. PHOTO EDITING SOFTWARE WAS IMPROPERLY USED ON THIS IMAGE. A CORRECTED VERSION WILL IMMEDIATELY FOLLOW THIS ADVISORY. PLEASE REMOVE THE IMAGE FROM YOUR SYSTEMS. WE ARE SORRY FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE. REUTERS LBN20

More on the doctored photo here, here, here, here, here, and here.

UPDATE: And here, here, here, here, and here.

UPDATE: Another Photoshop scandal seems to be erupting here and here.

UPDATE: Reuters now claims that this is an unretouched image of the same scene. What was the point of cloning the buildings and the smoke?

UPDATE: And here, on the English-language website of Yedioth Ahronoth, is the first news story on the controversy. It quotes a statement from a Reuters spokeswoman:

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.

UPDATE: Someone from a Reuters IP address sent a death threat to Little Green Footballs' Charles Johnson back in May? You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried.

08/06 08:12 AM