2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict photographs controversies
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Four types of misleading photojournalism have been alleged as part of the controversy: photo manipulation using computer software, photo staging by press photographers, photo staging by others at the scene, and false or misleading captioning of unstaged photos. The media watchdog group CAMERA claims that the distortions reflect a bias in favor of Hezbollah and against Israel and the Israel Defense Forces.<ref name="CAMERA">"Updated: A Reprise: Media Photo Manipulation", Ricki Hollander, CAMERA, August 8, 2006</ref>
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[edit] Photo manipulation
Reuters withdrew over 900 photographs by Adnan Hajj, a Lebanese freelance photographer, after he admitted to digitally adding and darkening smoke spirals in photographs of an attack on Beirut, using Adobe Photoshop to make the damage appear worse. Questions were raised about his photo editing of other pictures as well.<ref>Reuters withdraws all photos by Lebanese freelance, Reuters</ref>
[edit] Allegations of staging by press photographers
A photo of a burning Qur'an amid a pile of rubble, also taken by Hajj, seemed suspicious to Los Angeles Times media critic Tim Rutten, since the building it was in had been destroyed in an Israeli airstrike hours beforehand, and everything else in the photo was already ash. <ref name="rutten12aug">"Lebanon photos: Take a closer look", Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times, August 12, 2006</ref> A number of photographs were taken from Lebanon showing a children's toy in the foreground, surrounded by a pile of rubble.<ref>Reuters photo, Issam Kobeisi, July 21, 2006</ref> <ref>Reuters photo, Sharif Karim, July 26, 2006</ref> <ref>AP photo, Ben Curtis, August 7, 2006</ref> Rutten also wrote about this set, saying that "Reuters might want to check its freelancers' expenses for unexplained Toys R Us purchases."<ref name="rutten12aug"/>
Similarly, questions were raised about photographs of seemingly pristine snapshots and photo albums lying undisturbed on the top of the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli missiles. Media watchdog group CAMERA wrote, "how often does one find intact photographs sitting alone and undisturbed on top of the ruins of a building levelled by a missile? But coincidentally or not, photographers from various news organizations have been finding just that in rubble all over Lebanon."<ref name="CAMERA"/>
[edit] Allegations of photo staging by others
Many allegations of staging by those other than press photographers involve Salam Daher, the head of the South Lebanon civil defense organisation, who appeared in many press photos after the 2006 Qana airstrike holding up a dead girl's body. He was seen wearing a green helmet and the uniform of a rescue worker. However, he has been alleged to be a Hezbollah operative who is manipulating press coverage to create anti-Israel sympathy by bloggers including Richard A. E. North.<ref>"The Corruption of the Media", EU Referendum bloggers, eureferendum.blogspot.com, 15 August 2006</ref> North dubbed him "Mr. Green Helmet" and claimed that he seemed to be posing for photos for a longer period of time than a legitimate rescue worker would.<ref>"Photoshopping history", Kathleen Parker, Jewish World Review, 9 August 2006</ref> A German television station, NDR, in a program called "Zapp", subsequently showed footage in which he appeared to be directing the filming of the rescue effort (giving instructions to the cameraman to keep filming and removing a boy's body that was already put in an ambulance, in order to take more pictures of it), and called him a "cynical movie director."<ref name="YouTube">"Green Helmet acting as cynical movie director in Qana" at YouTube, Norddeutscher Rundfunk, posted 9 August 2006</ref> In response, the Associated Press published a profile about him, in which he denied the Hezbollah allegations, stating, "I am just a civil defense worker. I have done this job all my life."<ref>"'Green Helmet' helps rescue the wounded", Kathy Gannon, Associated Press, 11 August 2006</ref> In a second AP article, Daher admitted he had posed for cameras with some bodies, saying, "I wanted people to see who was dying. They said they were killing fighters. They killed children."<ref>"Lebanese rescuer 'Green Helmet' injured", Kathy Gannon, Associated Press, 15 August 2006</ref>
On 24 July 2006, the International Committee of the Red Cross issued a statement saying that, on the previous night, Israeli munitions had struck two of its ambulances, wounding nine people.<ref>Lebanese Red Cross ambulances suffer new security incidents, International Committee of the Red Cross, 24 July 2006</ref> The statement was reported by Associated Press that same day,<ref>"Lebanese hospital struggles with wounded", Kathy Gannon, Associated Press, 24 July 2006</ref> and the story eventually spread to many other news outlets around the world. Photos and video taken of an ambulance alleged to be one of the two in question, after the alleged attack, show a hole directly in the middle of the cross on the ambulance's roof. On August 29, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said, "after closer study of the images of the damage to the ambulance, it is beyond serious dispute that this episode has all the makings of a hoax," a conclusion he drew from evidence presented by a pseudonymous Internet commentator called "Zombie".<ref>"Downer accuses media of Lebanon hoax", Mark Dodd, The Australian, 29 August 2006 </ref><ref>The Red Cross Ambulance Incident, "Zombie", zombietime.com, posted 23 August 2006, updated 11 September 2006</ref> On August 30, the ICRC rebuked Downer, claiming that there was no evidence for the hoax claim.<ref>"Red Cross slams Downer hoax claim", Mark Dodd and Martin Chulov, The Australian, 30 August 2006</ref> Nevertheless, Downer stood by his charge.<ref>Alexander Downer radio interview with Tony Eastley, AM, 30 August 2006</ref> Martin Chulov, a reporter for The Australian claimed he had visited the injured ambulance workers and inspected the vehicle in question the day after the attack dismissed the hoax claims as "unfounded."<ref>Downer's unfounded net faith, Martin Chulov, The Australian, 31 August 2006</ref> <ref>Sticking by the Hoax, Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun, 31 August 2006</ref>
On August 8, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper reported about a Hezbollah press tour of a bombed-out area in southern Beirut on 23 July 2006 that Hezbollah operatives had paraded around a group of empty ambulances, with sirens flashing, in front of press photographers, to give the false impression that they were involved in treating civilian casualties.<ref>"CNN's Anderson Cooper outs Hezbollywood" at YouTube, posted 10 August 2006</ref> Charlie Moore described the same tour as a "dog-and-pony show" due to perceived staging, misrepresentation of the nature of the destroyed areas, and a strict directive about when and with whom interviews could take place.<ref>Charlie Moore. "Our very strange day with Hezbollah", CNN, 2006-07-23.</ref>
[edit] Allegations of improper captioning
Photographs submitted to Reuters and Associated Press showed one Lebanese woman mourning on two different pictures taken by two photographers, allegedly taken two weeks apart. <ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2006/08/trusting_photos.html</ref>
The New York Times improperly captioned a photo taken in the city of Tyre in its online edition; an injured rescue worker being lifted from the rubble was implied to have been a bombing victim when in fact the worker had slipped and fallen. The newspaper subsequently issued a correction, saying that the photo had appeared in the printed edition with the correct caption. <ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/pageoneplus/corrections.html?_r=2&oref=login&oref=slogin</ref>
[edit] Bruno Stevens photos
A set of photos taken by press photographer Bruno Stevens show a Lebanese gunman with a raging fire in the background. One such photo appeared on the cover of the July 31 issue of U.S. News & World Report, with the inside caption, "Hezbollah guerilla poses at the site of an Israeli attack near Beirut". Another one was published in the July 31 issue of Time, with a caption saying the fire came from the "wreckage of a downed Israeli jet." The photos' captioning quickly attracted controversy, with some commentators stating that the fire in the background appeared to be nothing more than a large pile of burning tires.<ref>http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3288887,00.html</ref><ref>http://hotair.com/archives/2006/08/08/another-bogus-photo/</ref>
On November 11, 2006 Stevens, on the online forum "Lightstalkers", attempted to explain the controversy.<ref>http://www.lightstalkers.org/the__garbage_dump__story__complete_explanation</ref> He wrote that he had originally given one of the photos the following caption:
- “Kfar Chima, near Beirut, July 17, 2006 An Israeli Air Force F16 has allegedly been shot down while bombing a group of Hezbollah owned trucks, at least one of these trucks contained a medium range ground to ground missile launcher.”
He wrote that sometime later, after having done more investigation, he had modified his caption to:
- “Kfar Chima, near Beirut, July 17, 2006 The Israeli Air Force bombed a group of Hezbollah chartered trucks parked on the back of large Lebanese Army barracks , at least one of these trucks contained a medium range ground to ground missile launcher, at least one missile was hit, misfiring high into the sky before falling down and starting a huge fire in the barracks’ parking lot.”
In his post, he wrote that he had had no say in the magazines' captions. He also reaffirmed the validity of his second caption, stating that the fire did not come from a garbage dump and was indeed the result of an Israeli attack; though he considered the site "a very legitimate target for the Israeli Air Force."
[edit] See also
[edit] References
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