Photog Phired

[Erik DeBill]

I'm all for the media to report on the truth but to skew it or misreport it to satisfy an agenda is evil. Let's be honest, who are the most powerful people on this planet today? The people who are controlling the minds of the masses? I promise you it isn't the governments of the West. It is the heads of the media and they should reflect on the responsibility of their postions.

Cartier Bresson complained about the ability to misuse photos by editors back in an essay written in the thirties. This is far more the case nowadays and I'm sure that many news photographers are being taken advantage of by the cherry picking of their photos to fit a story decided by an editor.

I'll agree that intentionally misreporting news is bad, but (leaving aside the current case in Lebanon) there is a long tradition of biased reporting to champion one cause or another. Political reporters digging for dirt rarely target all sides equally - they have an axe to grind. This is entirely natural and I think it's counterproductive to pretend that reporters can actually be unbiased.

Worse than being biased towards one side is going too far to try and present both sides and thus giving undeserved credibility to one side. This has been a major problem with reportage in the US for the last decade or so, particularly when religious and business groups protest scientific findings. If the investigation of the health risks from tobacco was handled in the same way we'd still be hearing that "some scientists think that rather than causing cancer, tobacco smoke actually encourages good health".

I do draw the line at manufacturing evidence, "facts" and news in general, though. Reporters are there to report. I can accept that they may only look in certain places or choose not to mention some things, but when they make things up or use things that they know are untrue then they're just producing entertainment or propaganda.

 

[Asher Kelman]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5254838.stm

Reuters' cans photographer for a very very bad job of Photoshopping.

Well actually just for Photoshopping ... but I would have fired him twice ...
1) for altering an image beyond an accurate representation; and
2) for doing such an obivious job of altering an image.

Gary

Nobody is fired yet, this time but the same lack of honesty in reporting is shown again at Reuters! Now they have distributed pictures from the Turkish "Aid" ship doctored to hide the character of "peace activists" by removing knives and pools of blood around a soldier they had mobbed and brutally attacked.

The work of looking carefully at the images is revealing.

Source

Asher

 

[Paul Abbott]

I support wholeheartedly what the Israeli government have done. I doubt if this action above will see any light by way of a newscast in my country.

Over here they are all condemning Israel for what they did. I rage hard against that!

 

[Asher Kelman]

I support wholeheartedly what the Israeli government have done. I doubt if this action above will see any light by way of a newscast in my country.

Over here they are all condemning Israel for what they did. I rage hard against that!

It's good Paul, to see some support for honest reporting. There's one set of facts, the humanity of the Palestinians and their need for a respite from hardship. However, they are not starving! Food is not scarce! Unfortunately, food given as aid does not necessarily end up with the folk intended, but rather is sold on the black market. So here's a place for great improvement. It's not some easy place for Palestinians themselves. The local Hamas rulers have been executing other Palestinians and that's not covered by the news either.

There's another pressing reality: no nation would allow ships to come even close if there was a history of bringing in heavy weapons and rockets to a group vowed to do one damage! The Iranians already sent such ships packed with military cargo. It's no surprise, therefore, that the Israelis would control ships approaching the Gaza coastline! The Hamas government is just simply refusing to accept aid shipments delivered via the port of Ashdod, even with the donor organizations accompanying their gifts! So this crisis is nothing to do with food, rather to allow unfettered entrance of military heavy weapons to Gaza to match the Iranian proxy missile capabilities now threatening Israel from Southern Lebanon.

Putting aside this created "conflict", I believe we will see a Palestinian State to provide for the aspirations of the people. They are likely to prosper if efforts are focused on education and modernism. I believe that very strongly. OTOH, spreading Iranian military power to the southern Mediterranean Sea does not bode well for Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and certainly not Israel.

To pretend that the known Hamas supporters armed with knives, bleeding bodies of Israeli commandoes with a pool of blood, are merely "Peacenicks" is so far fetched.

Asher

 

[Paul Abbott]

Also Asher, I cannot believe how the west are attacking Israel over this! It's absolutely dumb when you consider that the doctrine of this people/ faction is to kill every last standing Jewish person!

 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Also Asher, I cannot believe how the west are attacking Israel over this! It's absolutely dumb when you consider that the doctrine of this people/ faction is to kill every last standing Jewish person!

The only rational explanation is that it's a reaction to Israel terrorizing the Palestinian people (and not only in the so-called occupied territories). Mind you it's not an excuse to terrorize Israel in like fashion, just a mere explanation, an eye-for-an-eye attitude common in the Near-East that leads to nothing but anguish (and the ultimate self-distruction of Israel).

I trust neither faction in the conflict, they are equally untrue in representing the actual facts.

Cheers,
Bart