Ball and Socket

Posted by Twelvebit (Victoria, United States) on 10 September 2008 in Business & Industry.

I was really hoping to catch up with viewing blogs and responding to comments before today but I didn't make it. The next few days are looking a little uncertain as hurricane Ike (I liked it better when all these storms had female names) could be headed this way. Unfortunately, I'm way behind on processing and posting photos so if that turns out to be the case I may not get time to update my blog, view other blogs, or respond to comments until some time next week --though I might get some time today (Wednesday).

Warning, the following links contain either: 1) images of war casualties in Georgia, if the images are not staged; or 2) images of people pretending to be war casualties if the images are staged.

In the meantime, here's some stuff for photographers to chew on: Wired article on potentially staged propaganda photos. You can follow the links in the article of course, but these two are of particular interest: 1) these two photos are annotated in poor English, but, of course, draw your own conclusions; 2) scroll down to check out the images labeled someone keeps moving their son with this in mind....there does appear to be a change in perspective due to a change from a telephoto to a wide angle lens and at first glance, this does seem to explain what looks like manipulation --forget about that then, and look at the wrinkle pattern on the guy's shirt, the difference between the location of his shirt bottom and the waistline of his pants, and the size of the tear in his shirt in the two photos. Then there is the psychology of the images, but that of course is entirely subjective.

Anyway, perhaps there are other plausible explanations or interpretations, but Reuters and AP make no attempt to provide them, choosing to respond with a load of boilerplate horseshit about their unquestionable "ethics," without addressing any of the specific questions raised by the images. I can't remember a single instance in my entire life when this kind of dismissive response didn't indicate some kind of deliberate distortion or outright lie. Certainly in my own profession, when anyone raises questions about our work, we respond with specific answers to every question, including the evidence in our response --if there is any evidence (and if there isn't we say why and then explain our reasoning for whatever claim we're making). We don't dish out a load of BS about how we adhere to our own "Trust Principles." And in fact, if anyone did dump a load like that, everyone in the industry would assume they were hiding something, or lying.

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Comments (8)

MadScientist from Düsseldorf, Germany

Cool shot, I like the repeating patterns.
If there is a profession that has lost lots of its qualilty measures then it's journalism. So many news services just repeat what Reuters and AP have to offer and made them the main sources of information. So you must not question these sources, they provide the truth... ;-)

10 Sep 2008 12:26pm

lisa v from Gawler, Australia

a bloody disgrace

10 Sep 2008 1:11pm

JoeB from Brampton, Canada

The staging for propaganda is very obvious, I think we all forget from time to time that the media is a competitive business and especially newspapers in a shrinking market will throw out certain rules. There was an Israeli jet a while back where the photographer added missiles and more smoke damage to its target, he was fired. Looks Like Ike will hit Texas, are you staying or evacuating?

10 Sep 2008 3:07pm

@JoeB: It does look that way, but perhaps there is a plausible explanation that doesn't occur to me. However, as much as I mistrust the media, I'm not inclined to believe that AP or Reuters had their photographers stage anything. I'm more inclined to believe that a couple of photographers with personal agendas staged something, and that after publishing their photos, these wire agencies don't want to admit they were had, or that they've published staged or misleading photos. In the case you mention they acted because the image was doctored in a way that undermined the US/Israeli war narrative (in other words, was anti-US propaganda), and were getting pressure from the right-wingers. In this case, the images support the US/Israeli (but mostly US) war narrative (in other words, is pro-US propaganda), and they are under no pressure to address the issue.

I don't plan to leave even if the little Nanny State bureaucrats issue a "mandatory" evacuation order --something that was impossible/illegal back when I was a kid, and individual decisions and property-rights still got a little respect. If I was on the coast I'd leave without being told to, but I'm some 35 miles inland and idea of needing to evacuate is quite absurd. In fact, I think the risks and problems associated with evacuation are much greater --even the risks of physical injury-- than the risk of injury from the storm this far inland. Last time they pulled this mandatory evacuation stuff there were massive traffic jams that stalled people on the highways for up to 15 hours. The storm missed. If it hadn't, all those people in their cars would have been at far greater risk from the storm than I was in my home --not to mention all the other risks from being on the road, and the exposure to theft and additional damage to your unprotected property back home. I may have to board up though, if it looks like the track is going to bring the storm straight in here.

gbe from kansas city, United States

really like this photo. the links look interesting - will check them out soon.

10 Sep 2008 3:39pm

@gbe: Was going for a film look with this one. It looked just a little too placid to me without adding some grain.

dj.tigersprout from San Bruno, CA, United States

just a wonderful shot here - perfectly titled! i love the idea of everything fitting together just so! a marvelous and detailed shot! beautiful tones!

10 Sep 2008 6:49pm

Observing from West Cheshire, United Kingdom

The media, which includes national TV networks and newspapers all dance to the governments tune, they may state that they are independent, but they are not. The BBC for example is told by government what it can and can't broadcast, and approved 'stories' regarding war and the cause of it, the economy and how bad the situation is, are flashed across the globe and repeated over and over. It is all part of the One world order and they are in control and we listen.

Of course pictures and reports are staged, this has to be shown to the public as a valid reason to go to war. There always has to be a cause first to validate action.

10 Sep 2008 7:46pm

@Observing: "The BBC for example is told by government what it can and can't broadcast..."

Reminds me of what happened to "The War Game," a film about nuclear war that the BBC actually paid for back in 1965. The film was essentially about the government plans for the aftermath of nuclear war --and once it was shown to Ministers, they ordered the BBC not to broadcast it. All in all though, it seems like more information actually makes it through the BBC than through any of our supposedly "free market" media sources. Being in Europe, you may not appreciate how controlled our media is over here --I usually have to turn to European sources for anything that isn't complete propaganda. While it does appear that the European media was nearly as bad as ours in spreading the anti-Russian propaganda narrative in Georgia, there was some slight amount of criticism and dissent in your media --there was none here. And in our media there has been an almost total blackout on our impeding blockade of Iran, and the probable pre-election attack.