About That Photoshopped Smoke…
Although I’ve been silent about what some bloggers are dubbing “Reutergate” (also “Billowgate” and “Slightly-More-Smokegate“) I’ve been following its unfolding.
I’ve found the following posts to be a good survey of my own thoughts on the topic.
- An LGF Watch Parody, Probably a photoshop…
- S,N!’s You Call This a Scandal?
- The Liberal Avenger’s In Defense of Reuters.
As with every blogswarm, there is something important to take away. The moral:
It’s journalistically unprofessional to alter photographs. If you get caught, you’re going to lose your job. (But if you can probably get away with it, because photo editors are overworked and underpaid. Increase your chances and your bankroll by cropping out limbless kids!)
Submorals:
- Conservative bloggers are desperate for scandalous material pointing to international media bias. Anything to take the spotlight off of Israel’s total decimation of Lebanese infrastructure. (As evidenced by the posts linked above, this cannot be overstated.)
- [Something to do with aerial dog feces. I haven’t fully derived this. Wingnut nutrition, I think.]
- An impulsive and irrational contingent of outrage junkies is scouring the Prestigious Internet for photos that prove Capt. America was stabbed in the back with the dagger by Prof. Left in the library.
Of course the Second Universal Law of Political Blogging, the negation of Manshake’s tagline is true, has dictated the wingnutosphere’s behavior over the past few days. They are an amazing bunch; you’d think they didn’t have anything better to do.
Did you notice Malkin’s smug holier-than-thou attitude in HotAir while she rubbed Reuter’s nose in their doctored photos?
How dare she act like she is right again! After all, we know that Karl Rove was responsible for this latest fiasco.
.
Comment by JBenson2 — August 8, 2006 @ 11:21 am
Gee, now that I see that the smoke is a little lighter, those bombs never seemed to have killed anyone or destroyed any civilian infrastructure -whew!!
Comment by DUDACKATTACK!!! — August 8, 2006 @ 12:20 pm
Ah I see. The photo couldn’t pass The Charles Johnson Greyscale Test:
The sliding scale method:
a 1- 5) Burning Cross
a 6- 10) Book BBQ
b 1- 5) NASCAR Wreck
b 6- 10) Twin Towers Animated GIF
c 1- 5) Iraqi Oil Well
c 6- 10) Branch Dividian Compound
Comment by DUDACKATTACK!!! — August 8, 2006 @ 12:25 pm
RE: Today’s VENT
Michelle didn’t say anything that she didn’t pull from the work of others. Just like her blog, her foray into the video broadcast medium is a sad display of aggregating propaganda.
I get it: You guys are outraged over a perceived anti-Israeli bias. What do you plan to do about it? All I’ve seen is a bunch of whining.
I just want everyone to say what they mean. No need to delay the inevitable.
Comment by Ryan — August 8, 2006 @ 1:09 pm
Let’s see, taking a quick-and-easy way out a dude runs a down-and-dirty image filter and that is now called “doctoring?” holy shit I’ve doctored a whole hell of a lot of my own photos then, and so have many other photographers in the dark room prior to our digital age. This is not Weekly World news airbrushing folks. This is simply clicking on that tool in PhotoShop called “Auto Levels” under image adjustments. All it does is adjust the light balance of a photo.
Find a real story, Malkin. Your and your friends stupidity and inexperience is showing, just like when you freaked out about Emo.
Comment by skippy — August 8, 2006 @ 1:49 pm
Skippy, have you seen those photos at all? The alterations are not “auto levels” or other sorts of adjustments that apply to the image as a whole - these are deliberate, local changes of the contents in the photo, the smoke billows, using (poorly) the stamp tool in PS.
The doctoring doesn’t change the fact that bombs have been dropped and smoke arises from Lebanese houses every day now - and I haven’t heard Malkin or others deny that. Have you?
If Reuters published staged/fake photos that could be taken into account by the Right, would you condemn it?
Comment by Warberg — August 8, 2006 @ 3:10 pm
Skippy, you might be squirming and you might not like the spotlight but this is a real story and it is not going away. Just like the Dan Blather fraud did not go away.
And if you think Photoshop did this just by clicking on “AutoTools” you are either a photography novice or you are naive to actually believe the photographer was just trying to remove a few dust spots!
Comment by JBenson2 — August 8, 2006 @ 6:11 pm
Ryan,
I’d love to see you comment about Malkin’s appearance on O’Reilly. I nearly spit out the coffee I was drinking while watching it. I thought I was in some kind of Bizarro World at times. Do Bill and Michelle really believe the crap that comes out of their mouths? And why didn’t Kristen Powell call them on their hypocrisy?
http://hotair.com/archives/the-blog/2006/08/08/video-michelle-debates-something-or-other-on-oreilly/
Comment by Sherry — August 8, 2006 @ 8:42 pm
why didn’t Kristen Powell call them on their hypocrisy?
I am surprised that O’Reilly allows Kristen Powell on the show. She has been on a few times and I’m starting to feel sorry for her. She is certainly not the sharpest knife in the drawer, if you catch my drift. The democrats should find someone who is can respond faster with more insight.
Comment by JBenson2 — August 8, 2006 @ 9:45 pm
The doctoring doesn’t change the fact that bombs have been dropped and smoke arises from Lebanese houses every day now - and I haven’t heard Malkin or others deny that. Have you?
Actually, the guy from LGF was on MSNBC the other day and said that we’ve now got photographers “fabricating entire cities.” So clearly some people are using this incident to deny that cities and civilians are being bombed to pieces.
Comment by bvac — August 8, 2006 @ 10:04 pm
What’s depressing is the fakes were so obvious. Most photographers have a better eye and technical skills. Was this deliberate sabotage to make people numb and skeptical to the sight of death and destruction?
Comment by Maezeppa — August 10, 2006 @ 1:31 am
JBenson,
I’m not squirming at all. Unlike you, I don’t live for this jibberty jabberty bullshit. Yeah I was as wrong as the dude who messed with the pictures, but so what? Did these pictures destroy humanity? Did these pictures kill innocent people?
Did I mention I’m a Jew? Oh my. Oh my. Oh my. Does that throw your aback?
Did you know that the freakish Meir Kahane opposed Israel and wanted it to be destroyed? Did you know that? Do you even know what Israel is? Do you even know how it has been coopted by the hard right? No you wouldn’t. No you wouldn’t even understand what it means to be Jewish or to be Muslim. Think about it.
I’m just one little Internet buddy. I’m just one voter who will tip the balance against you and your type. How do you like that?
Comment by skippy — August 11, 2006 @ 11:33 pm
HEY…ONLY HAVE A SECOND….BUT JUST HAD TWO THOUGHTS:
ONE: I GUESS A LITTLE BIT OF ‘MAKING THE NEWS’ VERSUS REPORTING THE NEWS IS OK IF YOU’RE A LIBERAL REPORTER
TWO: GOOD THING I WASN’T IN CHARGE OF THE IDF. I’D HAVE STOPPED…..ON THE FAR SIDE OF TEHRAN. NO POINT IN LEAVING A JOB HALF DONE.
Comment by RANDY — August 19, 2006 @ 12:46 pm