As a followup to our Reutergate post on everything you ever needed to know about this subject and then some, we bring you the non-apology apology. If George W. Bush tried to get away with this, you can be sure someone would be initiating impeachment proceedings first thing Monday morning. H/T: LGF
Make sure you aren’t consuming any liquid substances when you read Reuters’ explanation of why Adnan Hajj concocted an entirely faked photograph of a nonexistent Beirut: Reuters drops freelance Lebanese photographer over image.
LONDON, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Reuters, the global news and information agency, 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. ...
Reuters withdrew the doctored image on Sunday and replaced it with the unaltered photograph after several news blogs said it had been manipulated using Photoshop software to show more smoke. Reuters has strict standards of accuracy that bar the manipulation of images in ways that mislead the viewer.
“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.
“This represents a serious breach of Reuters’ standards and we shall not be accepting or using pictures taken by him,” Whittle said in a statement issued in London. Hajj worked for Reuters as a non-staff freelance, or contributing photographer, from 1993 until 2003 and again since April 2005.
And to add alittle humor, the best quote of the day comes from Ace of Spades:
Yes, by this point, we all know the damn thing was so phony it could mount an insurgent Senatorial campaign against Joe Lieberman.
And almost a tie, Jeff Goldstein opines on the photog's excuse:
—Which is not too farfetched, I don’t think. After all, I once tried to dust my DVD player with only a desklamp on, and the next morning I noticed that I’d somehow created five new DVD players.
And how freaky is that?
It is so nice to have Jeff back on his game.
First Casualty
And from a tip from Michelle Malkin we learn a new term -- REUTERED:
Kit Jarrell has submitted the new term "Reutered" to the Urban Dictionary. LOL.
and also this:
Thomas Lifson calls for an outside investigation of Reuters:
Since Reuters now acknowledges that it has been hoaxed, and in turn has hoaxed the world’s media, doesn’t it owe us a detailed explanation of its standards? Shouldn’t the review of the Qana pictures be put into the hands of an independent panel of experts.
and this too funny Photoshop:
Shouldn’t Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs be part of that independent review panel? After all, Reuters owes him a debt of gratitude for uncovering a mistake their own quality assurance standards were inadequate to detect.
Plus a whole lot more.
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