Monday, August 07, 2006

I Love Photoshop

I first saw the report in The Age here: Reuters has admitted that this photo was doctored to add more smoke and make the bombing look much worse than it was. That they have told the photographer, Adrian Hajj, that they will not use any more of his photos is a big step forward.

The blog Little Green Footballs appears to have been the first to expose these lies. That blog also shows detailed examples of how the above photo was changed.

In a related story The Australian (here) has reported that Israel is now starting to take PR seriously and videotaping their incursions into Lebanon. Rather than just report what Hesbollah tells them, the press are now seeing the truth in the form of actual video footage taken by Israel on the ground and by helicopters.

The Australian related an example of reporting the "facts" that they are told by Hesbollah which are counter to what actually happened:

The need for such authentication was demonstrated in the aftermath of the Tyre raid, when a BBC journalist stationed there reported as fact what Hezbollah had told him -- that the raiders had landed by helicopter "and walked right into a Hezbollah ambush".

A few hours later, Israel released videos showing the raiders, a naval commando unit, stealthily approaching the apartment building that was their target and surrounding it before dawn.

An officer who participated said their objective was the commanders of Hezbollah's long-range rocket team. The three Hezbollah officers were living in an apartment on the second floor of a five-storey building. The commander of the Israeli team was the first to burst in.

In the shootout, all occupants of the apartment were killed but the Israeli commander was shot through his lungs, another commando was also seriously injured and six others wounded lightly by grenade fragments.

Carrying the two wounded men on stretchers, the commandos were attacked by several groups of Hezbollah fighters who came out of nearby buildings. Assisted by helicopter gunships, the commandos reported killing six to nine of the attackers before reaching the beach where they had landed. There a naval doctor performed a field operation on the wounded team leader that reportedly saved his life. The men were lifted off by helicopter.