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Watching the War on the Web II: the Blogosphere’s “Propaganda Watch”

The doctored pictures, © Reuters 2006
The doctored pictures, © Reuters 2006
News agency Reuters scrapped over 920 images by Lebanese photographer Adnan Hajj after bloggers alerted them to the fact that two of the pictures had been altered. The original picture is on the left, and on the right you can see someone has used a ’spray paint’ tool from a software package to add to the smoke rising from Beirut buildings. It’s pretty crudely done, and it’s no surprise that Reuters saw fit to issue a statement:
“Manipulating photographs in this way is entirely unacceptable and contrary to all the principles consistently held by Reuters throughout its long and distinguished history. It undermines not only our reputation but also the good name of all our photographers.”
It’s an indication of the emerging power of bloggers, who are setting themselves up as monitors of the press (sites like David’s Medienkritik are working on it full-time). They have the time and the anger to channel into keeping the media under surveillance, and dissecting the information that’s put out as news. They also have the means to publish their findings immediately, and have a sympathetic, faithful readership. British blog EU Referendum is just one site keeping a close watch on the British press for signs of ‘bias’ and has also been casting a sceptical eye over pictures of the Qana bombing. Little Green Footballs was one of the first to blow the whistle on Reuters.
The blogosphere’s reaction to “Reutersgate”, as some have dubbed the affair, has been abundant and predictably mixed. There’s little common ground between the two sides: those who believe that the media is biased against Israel, and those who hold that photo-doctoring is merely an inevitable product of the ultra-competitive field of photo-journalism, where the right image can make or break a career.
Rocket Jones, like many others, sees it as comeuppance for an over-powerful media:
“The reporters sit safely inside their ‘Green Zone’ hotels and have paid local stringers to bring them the news. They’re not covering the stories, they merely collate what is delivered to them before passing it along as fact.
“Yet when the public makes this argument, it’s disregarded by the media because they’re ‘professionals’. There have been a lot of arrogant bastards over the years working to turn journalism into a cult, and if you’re not in the cult then you cannot criticize. The sad thing is, they’ve largely succeeded.”
Peoria Pundit points out that the image wasn’t drastically altered:
“I don’t really see that it was changed to convey any political message, just to make it more dramatic and salable. Nevertheless, people will assume that’s what was done. The benefit from a ‘better’ photo is nothing compared to the loss of credibility for Reuters, whose reputation is not the best among among friends of Israel and the enemies of terrorism.”
Opinion may be divided but the message is clear: journalists should take care with their sources, because their every word is being pored over by a watching blogosphere, which pulls no punches.
Edited to add: a great summary by the BBC of the war of the weblogs.

08 August 2006 | 02.59pm (CEST) | posted by Susanna | |
TAGS Peace & Security | Democracy & Freedom | Media & Information | Science & Technology

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