The Latest MSM Doctored Photo

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Little Green Footballs found this picture just released by Reuters:

If you casually glance at it quickly you may not notice, but check out the top of the smoke billows.  Same pattern on both, obviously photoshopped.  Once word of this got out others jumped on.  Left and Right found a obvious clone in the picture:

And it continued to pile on.  Guess who the photographer is?  One Adnan Hajj, the same guy who took this picture at Qana:

Which we all know has become quite the fiasco for the Lebanese since the whole bombing was a set-up:

Rumors circulating over what destroyed a residential building in Qana are increasingly pointing to Hizbollah rather than Israel's precision missile strikes.

According to well placed sources, with access to IAF recon photos, the residential building in Qana was destroyed by a Hizbollah IED at 0700 Sunday July 30, 6 hours after the Israeli strike.

Further reports indicate that Hizbollah guerilla fighters restricted residents from leaving the area possibly shooting anyone that attempted to leave the Qana residential building.

With the local mortician (green helmet) being the one in all the pictures with dead kids. 

All in all, just another day with the biased MSM trying to make news rather then cover the news.  Pathetic and sad. 

UPDATE 2200hrs PST

The Jawa Report has found some more examples from this guy that look quite suspicious.  It appears we have a joker making a name for himself with "explosive" photo's and the MSM is buying it hook, line and sinker.

UPDATE II 2210hrs PST

A more experienced photo guy made the obvious retouching more clearer:

I adjusted the brightness in photoshop by manipulating the light curves and added an arrow to more clearly show the retouching. 

UPDATE III 2215hrs PST

Take a look at this photo from the same photographer: (h/t Free Republic)

I blew up the photo by 1500% and then cropped the area around the guys head:

You see that area around his head, it appears to me that there has been some work done around there to blend it in with the smoke. 

Check out the rest of the body with this pic, click it to see it full size:

Do you see any of that pixalation below the shoulders?  Only the part where the background is supposed smoke…..

Things that make you go hmmm. 

UPDATE IV 2240hrs PST

LGF has posted an update:

UPDATE at 8/5/06 8:11:06 pm:

IMPORTANT!

The possible original for this faked photo has been discovered. And it was taken on July 26, 2006, credited to the Associated Press, by Ben Curtis: Yahoo! News Photo. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

Notice the lower right area of this photo, and compare to lower left of the doctored photo. Notice how all the buildings line up perfectly, including the oddly shaped building on the horizon. I’m putting together another overlay to make it painfully obvious.

UPDATE at 8/5/06 8:33:02 pm:

Here’s the overlay showing the common area of these two photos, clearly cropped from a larger panorama shot.

Sad isn't it?

This photographer sure likes to use smoke alot:

Please tell me this is a joke right?  Not by the same photographer but looks a bit suspicious.

This Hajj guy loves the smoke:

UPDATE V 08/06/06 0900hrs PST:

It appears at about 0430hrs PST Reuters realized the mess that they made and pulled the photo:

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 Smoke billows from burning buildings destroyed during an overnight Israeli air raid on Beirut's suburbs August 5, 2006. Many buildings were flattened during the attack. REUTERS/Adnan Hajj (LEBANON) REUTERS NEWS PICTURES

Which was quickly picked up by YNET which mentions many bloggers:

Reuters withdraws photograph of Beirut after Air Force attack after US blogs, photographers point out 'blatant evidence of manipulation.' Reuters' head of PR says in response, 'Reuters has suspended photographer until investigations are completed into changes made to photograph.' Photographer who sent altered image is same Reuters photographer behind many of images from Qana, which have also been subject of suspicions for being staged

The photograph showed two very heavy plumes of black smoke billowing from buildings in Beirut after an Air Force attack on the Lebanese capital. Reuters has since withdrawn the photograph from its website, along a message admitting that the image was distorted, and an apology to editors.

In the message, Reuters said that "photo editing software was improperly used on this image. A corrected version will immediately follow this advisory. We are sorry for any inconvience."

Reuters' head of PR Moira Whittle said in response: "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," she added.

Earlier, Charles Johnson, of the Little Green Footballs blog , which has exposed a previous attempt at fraud by a major American news corporation, wrote : "This Reuters photograph shows blatant evidence of manipulation. Notice the repeating patterns in the smoke; this is almost certainly caused by using the Photoshop "clone" tool to add more smoke to the image."

Johnson added: "Smoke simply does not contain repeating symmetrical patterns like this, and you can see the repetition in both plumes of smoke. There's really no question about it."

A series of close ups are then posted on the blog, showing that "it's not only the plumes of smoke that were 'enhanced.' There are also cloned buildings." The close ups do appear to show exact replicas of buildings appearing next to one another in the photograph.

The Sports Shooter web forum, used by professional photographers, also examined the photo, with many users concluding that the image has been doctored.

"I'll second the cloned smoke…but it looks so obvious that I don't know how the photographer could have gotten away with it," wrote one user.

After further research, Johnson posted a photograph he says is the original image taken before distortions were made, showing much lighter smoke rising.

Other blogs have also analyzed the photographs, and reached similar conclusions, such as Left & Right , which states: "The photo has been doctored, quite badly."

The author of the Ace of Spades blog wrote: "Even I can see the very suspicious "clonings" of picture elements here. And I'm an idiot."

The Hot Air blog also looked at the photo, describing the image as "the worst Photoshop I have ever seen."

Adnan Hajj, the photographer who sent the altered image, was also the Reuters photographer behind many of the images from Qana – which have also been the subject of suspicions for being staged.

And for Carol in the comment section, got a screenshot of the picture from FR:

UPDATE VI 080706 0920hrs PST

So I go to work yesterday and find out this morning the story blew up:

Reuters withdrew all 920 photographs by a freelance Lebanese photographer from its database on Monday after an urgent review of his work showed he had altered two images from the conflict between Israel and the armed group Hizbollah.

Global Picture Editor Tom Szlukovenyi called the measure precautionary but said the fact that two of the images by photographer Adnan Hajj had been manipulated undermined trust in his entire body of work.

"There is no graver breach of Reuters standards for our photographers than the deliberate manipulation of an image," Szlukovenyi said in a statement.

"Reuters has zero tolerance for any doctoring of pictures and constantly reminds its photographers, both staff and freelance, of this strict and unalterable policy."

The news and information agency announced the decision in an advisory note to its photo service subscribers. The note also said Reuters had tightened editing procedures for photographs from the conflict and apologised for the case.

Removing the images from the Reuters database excludes them from future sale.

Reuters ended its relationship with Hajj on Sunday after it found that a photograph he had taken of the aftermath of an Israeli air strike on suburban Beirut had been manipulated using Photoshop software to show more and darker smoke rising from buildings.

An immediate enquiry began into Hajj's other work.

It established on Monday that a photograph of an Israeli F-16 fighter over Nabatiyeh, southern Lebanon and dated Aug 2, had also been doctored to increase the number of flares dropped by the plane from one to three.

Man, Charles from LGF sure does have some bona fides.  Great job to all that helped in trying to keep the MSM honest.   

Other's Blogging:


All in all, just another day with the biased MSM trying to make news rather then cover the news. Pathetic and sad.

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Positively comprehensively excellent coverage, Curt! As always.

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“Do you see any of that pixalation below the shoulders?”

No, but here is what I DO see. If you go starting from his head and go to the left … follow the pixilation. At about his shoulders, the pixilation leaves his body and continues to the left along the top of the rubble. It is as if the foreground of a person on a rubble pile was cut and then dropped on top of a picuture of a burning building which makes up the background.

If you have a flat screen such as a laptop, it might help to tilt the screen a little forwards or backwards to help see it.

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Gotta agree Mike and Carol, no reason to be surprised anymore. As I said in my post, its all about making news rather then reporting news nowadays. All to further their twisted little agendas

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RightWinged.com

EXCLUSIVE: Another BIG Reuters / Adnan Hajj Scandal Busted…

I was turned on to yet another Hajj scandal by reader Michelle, and have dug a little deeper to add to it. Obviously Hajj is officially discredited so the piling on isn’t necessary, but the point still remains that Reuters……

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