by Yaakov Lappin, YNet News
A Reuters photograph of smoke rising from buildings in Beirut has been withdrawn after coming under attack by American web logs. The blogs accused Reuters of distorting the photograph to include more smoke and damage.
| “... photo editing software was improperly used on this image. A corrected version will immediately follow this advisory. We are sorry for any inconvience...” |
The photograph showed two very heavy plumes of black smoke billowing from buildings in Beirut after an Air Force attack on the Lebanese capital. Reuters has since withdrawn the photograph from its website, along a message admitting that the image was distorted, and an apology to editors.
In the message, Reuters said that "photo editing software was improperly used on this image. A corrected version will immediately follow this advisory. We are sorry for any inconvience." . . .
Earlier, Charles Johnson, of the Little Green Footballs blog, which has exposed a previous attempt at fraud by a major American news corporation, wrote : "This Reuters photograph shows blatant evidence of manipulation. Notice the repeating patterns in the smoke; this is almost certainly caused by using the Photoshop “clone” tool to add more smoke to the image." . . .
The Sports Shooter web forum, used by professional photographers, also examined the photo, with many users concluding that the image has been doctored. "I'll second the cloned smoke...but it looks so obvious that I don't know how the photographer could have gotten away with it," wrote one user. . . .
Score another one for the bloggers in pajamas! |