Rueters Bias

Where There's 'Smoke,' There's a Firing http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=TopNews&storyID=2006-08-06T215602Z_01_L06301298_RTRUKOC_0_US-MIDEAST-REUTERS.xml&WTmodLoc=Home-C2-TopNews-TopNews-10
Reuters finds itself in the middle of the latest journalistic scandal: The wire service "told a freelance Lebanese photographer on Sunday it would not use any more of his pictures after he doctored an image of the aftermath of an Israeli air strike on Beirut." Blogger Charles Johnson http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=21956_Reuters_Doctoring_Photos_from_Beirut&only exposed the fake photo, which seemed to show two plumes of smoke rising from buildings in the Lebanese capital.
The original photo (shown here http://today.reuters.com/news/newsPhotoPresentation.aspx?type=topNews&imageID=20060806T215559Z_01_L06301298_RTRUKOP_0_PICTURE0.xml alongside the altered one) shows one burning building and far less smoke. Johnson analyzed the doctored photo and found repeating patterns, which could only be the result of digital manipulation. Reuters reports on the laughable explanation offered by photographer Adnan Hajj:
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"The photographer has denied deliberately attempting to manipulate the image, saying that he was trying to remove dust marks and that he made mistakes due to the bad lighting conditions he was working under," said Moira Whittle, the head of public relations for Reuters.
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This explanation is implausible on its face, but it becomes even more ridiculous with the revelation that another Hajj photo was similarly manipulated. This one, first noted by blogger Rusty Shackleford http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/184206.php , purports to show an Israeli F-16 plane firing missiles. In fact, according to Shackleford, they are "flares designed to be a decoy for surface to air missiles." And although the picture purports to show three of these "missiles," in fact two of them are simply copies of the first. YnetNews reports that Reuters http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3287774,00.html has acknowledged this photo was faked as well.
Other Hajj photos carry captions that appear to be inaccurate:
-A Hajj photo http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060806/ids_photos_ts/r1428781317.jpg transmitted yesterday carries the caption: "A Lebanese man runs away from the burning ruins of a building destroyed during an overnight Israeli air raid on Beirut's suburbs August 5, 2006. Many buildings were flattened during the attack." But the picture plainly was taken in broad daylight. As blogger " Bullwinkle http://www.bullwinkleblog.com/?p=1747 " (no relation to Marshall Wittmann http://bullmooseblogger.blogspot.com/ ) quips, the photo's subject must be "the world's slowest man."