More Propaganda
Sunday, 6. August 2006, 11:07:39
In related news, the IDF apparently bombed Disneyland. Only the Israelis make smoke like that...
Did I mention Qana? Check out EU Referendum's "Director's Cut" of the Qana photo staging. OpinionJournal looks at who really committed war crimes in Qana.
At Qana, Israeli aircraft fired toward a building to stop Hezbollah from shooting rockets at its cities. The aircraft did not deliberately target civilians; but Hezbollah rockets are targeted at civilians, a clear war crime. U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland last week called on Hezbollah to stop its "cowardly blending" among women and children: "I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this." If Hezbollah used Lebanese civilians in Qana as "human shields," then Hezbollah, not Israel, is legally responsible for their deaths.
The Jerusalem Post says the IDF is investigating the incident based on points made by bloggers.
And here is a particularly brutal blast at how little interest the media has in investigating Hezbullah propaganda claims.
Actually, these "competitive journalists" all appear to be standing at about the same spot near some especially stark rubble (from what appears, if you look at other photos, to be from an entirely different building) waiting, as EU comments "for the next photo-opportunity to be presented to them." EU also provides a great deal more seemingly damning context that suggests staging, and I'd be interested to see a response from the news wires.
Meanwhile, remember Israel's attack on a "hospital" in Baalbeck Tuesday night? That's how I heard it reported in several newscasts. You may have missed this paragraph in the Washington Post (hat tip to EyeonthePost):
Halutz said the hospital building was being used as a Hezbollah logistics base and storage site for weapons. Hezbollah fighters prohibited reporters from approaching the hospital, which they said had been emptied of patients at the beginning of the war. Local officials said a number of Hezbollah fighters and guards were inside.
Hmm, a "hospital" with no patients? And with Party of God terrorists inside instead? And that reporters aren't allowed to approach?
Read it all.
Update: Gateway Pundit rounds up some photos showing just how close Reuters photographers get to terrorists. They have amazing access, for some strange, unknowable reason.
Update: Reuters admits the photo is doctored, apologizes.
Update: Michelle wraps it up. Read the comments to see someone who actually believes the photo is authentic, even after Reuters withdrew it.
Update: Heh. Double heh!
WIDGETIZE
Anonymous # 6. August 2006, 15:44
I can’t believe anyone fell for this attempt by Chuckles the Clown to bash the MSM.
Here is the link to the site CJ got the info and images from.
http://www.leftandright.us/index.php/site/reuters_faking_photos/
Read my analysis and take a look at the images again.
In this small 4.5 x 3 inch(my screen@1024x768) photo the right hand column of smoke appears cloned but not when blown up. On the original photo right click and select “save image as” to your desktop so you can find it. It’s called “reutersfake.bmp”. Open with a pic viewer and increase magnification to 200%, 300% and 400%. You will see that the patterns in the 2 columns of smoke do not repeat, are not the same or cloned. It is a coincidence that happens also with clouds and is magnified because of the small image. Fine detail is lost.
And you are being faked out by the second photo which is a 2 frame animated gif image. This is the image that was fraudulently manipulated and not the original. The second, “sharpened” frame is actually cloned from another area of the pic by the person that produced this animated gif image.
Look at the second frame of the gif image which has a supposed sharpened version of that area in the original. When sharpened, look at the building that slopes down on the left hand side, in the extreme bottom right corner of the sharpened area. It looks like the same building just slightly to the left at the bottom of the original. In the original that area is a blur and when sharpened the brights and darks don’t mach up. Now look above the spot of that sloped building in the original, and notice the bright building above, lining up with the right side of that building with the slope. Look at the brightness of that building in the original and how that building disappears in the sharpened version. That building should also be sharper and brighter. It shouldn’t just disappear altogether. When sharpened you can still make out the extreme right side of that building in the original area out side the sharpened area. But in the sharpened portion 90% of that building is missing.
The building to the left of the building with the slope is suspect. On the back of the right side at the roof of that building see how the bright spot appears and disappears, ditto for the bright spot 1 floor down the building from roof area bright spot. If you sharpen, bright areas get brighter and dark areas get darker.
Also this building is shifting slightly left and right between the 2 frames. Put your curser on an edge to see this shift.
Granted this building looks similar to the one below and to the left in the original. Have you ever seen pics of Cabrini Green housing complex in Chicago. Row after row of the same buildings. There are buildings in any big city in the US that are exactly the same built by the same developer. Back in the early 80’s when the USS New Jersey was shelling the Muslim section of Beirut the pics of the area bombed looked like Cabrini Green only on a hillside. If this is repeated clones the building that slopes off to the left should have as much detail as the building to it’s left, in the original, because it is so bright. And that disappearing building should show below. But you only see that building once in the original
Now look at the bottom left corner of the second “sharpened image and look how the smoke just disappears from the original. In that area of the second “sharpened frame, you see a building with no smoke in front of the top of that building like there should be, sharpened or not.
Look at the left had column of smoke. In the original it is contiguous. In the sharpened frame it is separated on the right side and you can see through it. Also notice how the edges of the smoke shift in the second “sharpened” frame. Notice the shape of the smoke, that touches the left edge of the pic, rising from the buildings in the bottom left corner. Then look at the smoke at the top left of the sharpened image. Notice how the shape changes. And in the sharpened frame it looks exactly like the smoke I mentioned before at the bottom that’s touching the left edge of the pic.
If you look hard you will see a few other tell tale signs of manipulation of the published original.
Looking at this animated gif produce by the propagandist, my image viewer shows the masked area that was copied by this person.
The propagandist copied the buildings from the bottom left of the pic and pasted (cloned) them higher and to the right. Then they reduced the size to make it proportional for the further distance were it was pasted. Then used the blur tool on the clone that they pasted.
People will do anything or believe anything that advances the “dishonest” MSM meme.
cbjohnso # 6. August 2006, 16:04
"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...'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."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3286966,00.html
Sometimes the media IS dishonest. Especially stringers in the Middle East...