Last week, Iran made a show of testing some missiles. A display of power, announcing our presence with authority kind of thing. It now appears that the Iranians were being deceptive.
From PC Mag.
The New York Times reports the Iranian photo — an impressive shot with four missiles climbing skyward, plumes of smoke trailing behind — was distributed by Agence France-Presse and picked up by the Los Angeles Times, The Financial Times, The Chicago Tribune and several other newspapers as well as on BBC News, MSNBC, Yahoo News, NYTimes.com, and many other major news Web sites.
The problem was there was another photo from the Associated Press. Three of the missiles were at nearly the altitude of the AFP photo. The fourth was still on its mobile launcher. How could that be? The simple answer from the Times is, it can’t.
The non-firing missile had been removed and the fourth missile added using Photoshop or some other program.
They Photoshopped the launch to make it look more impressive. Good going Iran, now you are probably ready to open a MySpace page.
Let’s take a look at the photos. First the photo showing the missile that didn’t fire.
And, the allegedly Photoshopped “handout” picture that all the big media ran with.
Whenever this kind of thing happens, the word “duped” gets thrown around. The media was duped. Like they were victims of some diabolically clever hoax. C’mon, this is technology that is readily used by fourth-graders. The problem here is with all these major news organizations. They took a photo that was handed out by the Iranian government at face value, like there is some kind of honor among tyrants. These bastions of journalistic integrity have bought the hype, they didn’t have their bullshit detectors on.
Well, at least the mainstream press eventually caught the sham right? Wrong.
No, John Graham-Cumming, a blogger who has developed an algorithm for detecting copy/paste for doctoring photographs, is the one that spotted it. Good work, JGC.
The media is so eager to fill the news hole and, with competition from blogs and user generated reportage, so worried about getting information out there first, that they jump on content without ever considering the source.
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Tags: bullshit, hoax, John Graham-Cumming, New York Times, Photoshopped
Axe wrote,
The media is mostly populated by young people that know fuck all about much since they are mostly fresh out of uni/college. These young kids have also grown up in the Photoshop age. They understand it perfectly. What they don’t understand however, is that if you are offered a news story from an, ‘ahem’, foreign sourse, especially one that is not exactly ‘friendly’, then they should be wary about using it. This story Jack, it does more to discredit the US’s newspapers than you might at first think. This totally plays into the hands of the Iranians who are pissing themselves right now. This is all a part of the Middle Eastern mindset. “Those suckers bought yet another one,” they are thinking. That’s why they ‘caputured’ the British Marines. It’s a front. A bit like the ‘Front’ that the Allies put on for Hitler from the UK before the Allied Invasion in WW2. This is all diversionery tactics made to make Iran look bigger and more powerful than it is. But then I’m telling you the plot!
Axe - having a global rant
Link | July 12th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Pat Darnell And Friends wrote,
Mr Victim, You are absolutely correct! I might be a bit prejudiced with my association in here, but what you say is exactly my thoughts right now.
[Juggernauts and Sapsuckers, two per centers, and trilobites, cenobites, fleabites and yobbites] something like that… will get back to you after I settle down.
pd-stewing-a-bite
Pat Darnell And Friends’s last blog post..Brain Industries
Link | July 12th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Pribek wrote,
Global rants are welcome here Axe. You make an excellent point too. The thing that bugs me more than the fact that the media takes the bait is the overall naivete, not just in the media here but on the street. The notion that guys like Ahmadinejad and Chavez are eccentric, well meaning fellows and that Iran is just trying to develop with noble motive.
Link | July 12th, 2008 at 6:18 pm