Fauxtography-fest 2008!
***Update from LGF.***
***
Here we go again. You’ll all remember how the MSM brought us the first Fauxtography-fest in the summer of 2006. Well, the photo fakers and their dupes in the media are baaaack. And the blogosphere’s all over them.
LGF’s Charles Johnson and Brian Ledbetter have the rundown on the digitally enhanced Iranian missiles in an image distributed by Agence France-Press. See also: Kamangir, Blackfive, Pat Dollard, EU Referendum, Ace, Jim Hoft, Suitably Flip.
The AFP has retracted the photo. The NYT, fresh from its own photo-distorting embarrassment, reports:
Updated, 9:33 a.m., Agence France-Presse has retracted the image as “apparently digitally altered.”
As news spread across the world of Iran’s provocative missile tests, so did an image of four missiles heading skyward in unison. Unfortunately, it appeared to contain one too many missiles, a point that had not emerged before the photo appeared on the front pages of The Los Angeles Times, The Financial Times, The Chicago Tribune and several other newspapers as well as on BBC News, MSNBC, Yahoo! News, NYTimes.com and many other major news Web sites.
…Agence France-Presse retracted its four-missile version this morning, saying that the image was “apparently digitally altered” by Iranian state media. The fourth missile “has apparently been added in digital retouch to cover a grounded missile that may have failed during the test,” the agency said.
Wait, that’s not all.
On another fauxtographic front, the AP admits getting duped by fake tornado video.
But hey, they’re the professionals with layers and layers of credentialed fact-checkers.
And we’re just amateurs in our basements.
***
Memo to MSM: Give credit where it’s due, why don’t you?!
See what others have said
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Trackbacks
- Why would Iran fake it? | BitsBlog
- The Saloon dot net
- Badger Blogger » Blog Archive » Fauxtography in the media
- snapped shot
- GOP and College - Iranian Fauxtography
- southchild » Blog Archive » Update on the Iranian Missile Photoshop
- A Blog For All
- The Media Still Suckers « Tai-Chi Policy
- silent E speaks - Conservatively Speaking from Western Waukesha County » Iran……
- Hot Air » Blog Archive » Iranian insecurity revealed in phantom missile
- Iran tests more missiles, War Games, Airs reworked Video from Monday « POLITISITE: Politics from the RIGHT Side of the WEB
- Iran’s Missile Test Made 33% More Powerful With Photoshop « BUUUUURRRRNING HOT
- Dave Lucas » It's an OLD picture, to boot!
- Breakfast Links: 07-11-08 « American Sentinel
- Tel-Chai Nation
- NY Times and Fox News Fail To Credit Blogger For Exposing Iranian Hoax « The Political Page
- WebElf Report News Blogroll « The WebElf Report
- Reverse_Vampyr » Gratuitous Sarah Palin bikini pos
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Can we get a picture of the editors with multiple eggs on their collective faces? Why does anyone read these rags anymore?
But, Cosmo, they have the finest buggy-whips in the world – didn’t you know that? Just ask them!
BTW, Michelle, I thought you blogged from your closet.
The good news from this is that we now know 1/4 of all Irainian missiles will not even fire. And this is thier BEST missiles.
The faked missile photo is still on display through Yahoo News.
I blog from an office loft. Or my deck. And usually not in my jammies (shhh!)…
But…but…but…. Our Saviour, Obama, said we could trust the Iranians, and there is no way He could be wrong. You right-wingers must have hacked into the Iranian website and planted the fake picture! Yeah, that’s it!
/NYT
There was a Dilbert cartoon once which went along the following lines:
As an economy measure, the office had installed motion-sensitive light switches. But because so many employees were sleeping in their cubes, the lights kept going out. The solution was to hire someone to run about the aisles between the cubes, flapping his arms. The punchline: “– And another Journalism major enters the workforce.”
Layers and layers of … whatever. It doesn’t matter if one has whole legions of “fact checkers” and “editors” if they are people of such low intellectual caliber as today’s “journalists.”
This story is just one more illustration of a self-evident truth.
Don’t worry, saint Obama the messiah (PBUH) will talk down the missiles.
Hope you don’t have to pay them now for using the photo Michelle.
Actually, I am surprised by this. All those experienced people in the MSM and they couldn’t come up with a better fake than this?
Just when you thought their credibility couldn’t get any lower they continue to dig. LMAO
SWEET. I was going on and on yesterday at work about how this picture HAD to be altered, based on the smoke clouds at the base.
Vindication is great.
I’d love to see this photo altered to show a crowd of this woman, (#4) in a frozen shocked expression, watching the missile launches.
Well, well, well. The fauxtography chickens have come home to roost, have they?
Actually, we don’t have basements in South Florida. I blog at the kitchen counter – usually in a skirt, sometimes in a nightgown. Sorry, no pjs or fuzzy slippers here.
Great post!
I saw this late yesterday afternoon over at LGF. It generated so much traffic that the hamsters choked.
Michelle, it looks like you knocked the hamsters off the wheel again
.
Will they photo shop the heads that will roll over this?
HAHA!! This is rich. The press is so easily duped.
Everyone knows Michelle blogs from the chip aisle at the local grocery store.
After working over 40 years in the field of graphic arts, it amazes me what the MSM doesn’t know about CG,(computer graphics). I wonder what kind of ROOKIES run their EDITORIAL ROOMS. I have seen obvious ENHANCED photos, photos placed backwards, and photo captions that don’t match the photo. That, coupled with the poor printing quality on their 4/c photos and ads, with registration between colors so bad you can’t look at them without getting a headache. No wonder circulation is in the crapper.
LOL – we’ve known for years that the MSM fakes their news stories, now they’re faking the fauxtos as well? It figures that it was a French organization.
The New York Times never quite fessed up to its own lie that it did with a photo that the Times ran in September, 2000. An Israeli citizen had been savagely beaten by an Arab mob in the West Bank and the AP got a photo of the poor man bleeding profusely and bleeding. So what did the New York Times do about it? Well, the Times ran a caption that said “Palestinian civilian beaten by an Israeli mob”. Only weeks later did the NY Times reluctantly and begrudginly admit to its own shameful conduct.
Fauxtography won’t work when the shooting starts.
Downright mean and nasty. Can’t you play nice like all the other little boys and girls?
Hey! Lighten up. I’m sure the rocket story is “Fake but Accurate.” Dan Rather pioneered this new journalism, and it is catching on everywhere.
A picture is worth a thousand lies!
Well, I think it makes better sense that way…
Makes you wonder just how many missiles the Irantards truly fired and that actually succeeded in performing in the way they were expected to. My guess is far less than what the mullah-run gov’t is claiming. (Not to say that the Irantards don’t pose a threat, this is just say that I suspect this “enhanced display” is exactly that, a display that covers the possible true shallowness of their military capabilities.)
How Iran fights a war – with duds on the launch pad. Our missles don’t need any photoshop alterations.
For those of you who think the price of oil is going down anytime soon – look at the correlation between the price of oil and Iran’s military maneuvers. Anytime Iran want to keep the price up, they just fire off a few missiles and conduct wargames. It works wonderfully well and the American people are distracted by our politicians blaming OPEC, big oil, speculators, and more.
We are too stupid to drill and stop this game.
yeah, and we should have known Sadam didn’t have WMDs – what will be the cry from the left about the accuracy of Iran’s weaponry. The liberal media is buying into Iran’s propoganda hook line and sinker, without question….
oops “propaganda” sorry
I believe it was Cheetos at Price Club.
Well, golly gee. Do you think you might ever be able to achieve their level of professionalism. Oh, wait. You don’t want to regress like that.
The video feed of this launch is still on yahoo news. The fourth missile in the photo simply does not exist in the video feed.
Was the originating video faked as suggested by the similarities in the smoke clouds?
As I said in #12 the whole scene could be produced in CG 3D and no one would know the difference except those who work in the medium and sometimes it’s even hard to tell then if you have someone talented enough and patient enough to produce it.
Wearing Pajamas.
oops not finished, It starts out with one missle with particles flying off the next scene you see three leave the ground and if you look when they show the missles in the sky there are four smoke trails. I have my doubts about the authenticity of the video.
May I remind everyone that it was the French media which reported how bad the invasion of Iraq was failing right up until we won? French readers were left scratching their heads about how exactly we made Baghdad when their press was telling them we were bogged down in the desert and lost in the sandstorms. So fauxtography like this is not a bug in the French press, it’s a feature. Sometimes the truth is not fit to report in France and needs improvement to match up to the politically correct perceptions, just like they do in Al Jazeera.
For example, Alain Hertoghe, reporter for the French newspaper La Croix, wrote a book called “The War of Outrages” about the biased French coverage of the Gulf War in which he claims French journalists “dreamed of an American defeat,” spinning every casualty into a Stalingrad-like defeat. His paper fired him for telling the truth and the French media refuse to review his book.
Here is the link to the video you decide
Has anything else been confirmed about this so-called missile launch? If the Iranians felt the need to fake the picture, what else did they fake?
I’m sure the credulous MSM will be right on it.
I will tell you this because I have done a missle launch in CG 3D that if I put in the same parameters for the partical effect (even if I add wind)for each missle they all will react in the same way and will duplicate each others smoke an fire, the camera shake can also be achieved this is what I think they have done with it. These videos give you and idea of how this could be done.
oops wrong link These videos give you and idea of how this could be done.
The foreground is also a key. Look at the pile of dirt on the right of center, then look at the one just left of center, same spacing and same contours. What is just as interesting in the last pile that is to the far right, again same contours. Hmmmm, just how much more editing was going on?
I have proof that only three missiles went up.
Nice job LGF and all! Now what is so hard about admitting that the Obama Birth Cert ain’t but a faux too.
What we outside of the MSM are not privy to, PhotoShop sold in rouge countries such as Iran contain missile guidance software and advanced versions have performance enhancement capabilities that can circumvent/compensate for any hardware failures. Got it, great! Is it not about time we intellectual stiffs give up our relentless condemnation of the MSM. After all aren’t their vast majority on the verge of bankruptcy. In the business world this is worse than explosive diarrhea (with or without a fan).
Does this mean that the tests didn’t happen? Does it mean that Iran under Bush did not become able to threaten Israel?
Of course not, questioning the photo is a sorry attempt at diversion from the actual issue: Bush has attacked Iraq while allowing Iran to become stronger.
Nobody is questioning the photo, lgm. Everyone is in agreement that it is a Photoshop. Even the French. This issue is not about Bush and Iraq. It is not about Iran somehow just starting to threaten Israel since President Bush took office. We aren’t even questioning your sanity. That question was answered long ago.
Yep, looks like Iranian technology to me.
lgm,Iran/Persia has been threatening Israel from the beginning of time.Their only goal is to wipe Israel out.If President Bush made 1 move towards Iran you would be leading the pack screaming for his head and you know it.
lgm: “Does this mean that the tests didn’t happen?”
It’s hard to tell what happenned, lgm, wouldn’t you say? Such slight of hand leads one to believe that less happenned than the Iranians presented, doesn’t it?
lgm: “Does it mean that Iran under Bush did not become able to threaten Israel?”
Bush doesn’t run Iran, the mullahs do. All Muslim clergy everywhere threaten Israel. However, Bush put US armies on both sides of Iran, in Afghanistan and Iraq. Threatening Israel is about all they can do when we can hit them from both sides. However, if you think that puts Iran in a better position, not a worse one, I’d very interested to hear your reasoning. Right now, it sounds like you’re so rabid in your hate of Bush that you can’t make sense of the world.
lgm: “Of course not, questioning the photo is a sorry attempt at diversion from the actual issue: Bush has attacked Iraq while allowing Iran to become stronger.”
In fact, Iran is in a weaker strategic position for the reasons given above but which are unknown to lefties who have never broken out a map of the Middle East. Iran has become weaker in a number of ways, particularly financial. Bush has cut Iran off from the world banking system, which weakens an already weak Iran considerably further.
It’s also worth noting that Iran is economically fragile since it is a one-industry state. It makes most of its money exporting crude oil and must import gasoline. When the Iranians threaten to cut oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz its akin to a mental patient strangling himself, threatening to strangle you too if you don’t do what he wants.
As anyone who has faced down a schoolyard bully knows, such hysterical threats are evidence of weakness and fear. We’ve been down this path before with Saddam, who promised to burn our troops in lakes of fire and drop our fighter jets like dead sparrows. Look how that turned out.
Iran and Iraq fought for ten years to a stalemate and a million dead. We beat Iraq in six weeks. Going to war with the Great Satan is the last thing the mullahs want to do. However, those who can’t fight, threaten, because it fools the weak-minded and spineless.
It means that Bush laid out their plans to the world. Remember: it was Carter that got the mullahs in charge there.
Did North Korea become a nuclear power under Clinton? And Bush has to clean it up.
So if I understand you correctly, we should have attacked Iran? Yeah, I am sure you and the other lame ass libs wouldn’t have had something to say about that!
Oh, and maybe someone else mentioned this, but the reason for the doctored photo is that all 4 were supposed to go off, and when they pressed the button, missile number 3 was a dud. So they shopped in the missile two complete with dust cloud for the illusion. They can’t have some sort of “look how powerful we are” moment when their mighty missile fleet has a 25% failure rate.
Too bad they didn’t have a frew dozen pics to choose from, because the smoke from missile 2 and 4 a few seconds before and after could have been used. But it’s from the same exact pic.
lgm said:
I have discovered lgm’s true identity.
…Iran under Bush…Iran under Bush…Iran under Bush…Iran under Bush…Iran under Bush…Iran under Bush…Iran under Bush…Iran under Bush…Iran under Bush…Iran under Bush…Iran under Bush…
Why did I think Iran was under Ahmadinejad and the US was “under” Bush?
You’re a friggin genius, legume!
GK:
lgm was the reason I invented this.
Doing a funny little parade, providing weapons for others and shooting off at the mouth doesnt make Iran stronger.
Right now they’re playing with matches and are sure to get burned.
The NYT’. Stupid, foolish, and arrogant. And if we don’t have the story, we will steal it. I hope their stock price goes down.;)
I always suspected the Iranians of being incapable of anything more than sword rattling, and now we have proof. The real enemy is North Korea.
The real enemy is truth to most politicians. Especially when it comes to the subject of oil supply…
But you know, it’s a funny old world… yesterday we had Michelle going green and saying we should reduce our dependence on the gas pump…. and today proof that the threat in Iran is overblown, fake and just a bunch of sword rattling.
Tomorrow: Malkin endorses Obama.
Is that because she’s really black?
I just wish the Iranians would shut up. They don’t have the required level of civilization yet to manipulate photographs properly, let alone do anything else.
Reminds me of what Mark Steyn said on Hewitt yesterday. The MSM no longer does new investigations, they pick it up like it is from the store and pop it in the microwave.
He was referring to their refusal to cover good news from Iraq, but the sloth is apparent.
BTW, I think Hewitt said Steyn was guest hosting Limbaugh’s show today. I’ll have to see if I can stream KTRH 740 AM here at the office.
Well I am way late on commenting on this but as I suspected most of the entire “flexing” stunt by Iran is fake.
Old footage, faked photos and reports of low threat indication from the US Navy (grapevine talk only) and we have what appears to be our current situation.
…and off of Drudge:
”
IRAN MISSILE TEST BLUFF: OLD ROCKETS, BOGUS VIDEO
Fri Jul 11 2008 15:18:02 ET
Many of Iran’s claims related to missile tests during “Great Prophet III” war games — appear to be smoke and mirrors!
The missiles tested DID NOT not have 2,000-kilometer range, the NEW YORK TIMES is planning to report on Saturday.
Iran DID NOT launch a Shahab-3 missile, able to reach Israel.
It was an older missile that was out of production, newsroom sources tell DRUDGE.
And a video showing what appeared to be many missiles being fired — is actually one missile, filmed from different angles!
NYT’s Bill Broad is planning to quote military insiders.
Developing…”