Before and after: altering the truth
Permalink | August 7th, 2006
A photograph that was distributed by Reuters this weekend showing smoke rising from buildings in Beirut has been withdrawn after bloggers alerted the agency of obvious alterations and doctoring. The picture, which includes repeating symmetrical patterns in the smoke as well as cloned buildings, was submitted by freelance photographer Adnan Hajj.
In a statement Reuters said photo editting software had been improperly used on the image, and that this represents a serious breach of Reuters’ standards, and we shall not be accepting or using pictures taken by [Hajj]. A spokewoman for Hajj maintains that he was trying to remove dust marks and that he made mistakes due to the bad lighting conditions he was working under.
Attempting to remove dust marks in bad lighting conditions … is that the best he could come up with?!
