January 16, 2006

Photo fakery at the New York Times

By Thomas Lifson
Is a fake staged photo fit to print? What if it staged in a way that makes the US forces fighting the War on Terror look cruel and ineffective? The evidence argues that yes, it can run, and in a prominent position — at least in the case of the New York Times website. It appears that the Times, once—upon—a—time regarded as the last word in reliability when it comes to checking before publishing (which makes them so much better than blogs, of course), has run a fake photo on the home page of its website. The photo has since been removed from the home page, but still can be seen here.  The picture shows a sad little boy, with a turbaned man next to him, a little bit further from the camera, amid the ruins of a house.  Other men and boys peer in from the background. The photo  is captioned "Pakistani men with the remains of a missile fired at a house in the Bajur tribal zone near the Afghan border." The story it accompanies is about...(Read Full Article)