Iraqi woman lies her ass off - AFP happy to oblige

[Darion]

Iraqi woman shows two bullets that hit her house during a coalition raid.

What's wrong with this picture?

http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070814/p...e988aa146f5f76

I've figured out why the US is making no headway in Iraq - it turns out we're just throwing bullets, instead of firing them from weapons!

In case someone at the AFP figures out that they are completely full of shit and takes it down, here is the picture and caption:

An elderly Iraqi woman shows two bullets which she says hit her house following an early coalition forces raid in the predominantly Shiite Baghdad suburb of Sadr City.

[Darion]

Side note: Does anyone notice how similar these two patients look?

Has the AP revived the Making Shit Up Department, I wonder?






I see that the bandage on his head is exactly the same one on his arm. You think they would have at least not put the photos immediately next to each other in the slideshow.

EDIT: They were both also credited to Emad Matti.

[Malacasta]

I don't get what your point is about the two photos in your second post. I can't tell if they're the same person or not and the caption doesn't really tell us one way or the other.
If they were the same person, what does it mean? Are you suggesting the bombing didn't happen, or that noone died?

[Darion]

Originally posted by Malacasta
I don't get what your point is about the two photos in your second post. I can't tell if they're the same person or not and the caption doesn't really tell us one way or the other.
If they were the same person, what does it mean? Are you suggesting the bombing didn't happen, or that noone died?

Did I ever say that? I don't believe I did. Nor did I even imply it. I am sure the bombing did occur - especially since I posted a thread about that precise topic. I would also be willing to bet against all comers that the second pair of photographs was staged with the same kid in each one.

Are you implying that the AP has not been popped before for doctoring and staging photographs? It seems like you are trying to make the case that since an event did occur, it is permissible for the press to stage some photographs that may or may not depict what actually happened.

[Malacasta]

Originally posted by Darion
Are you implying that the AP has not been popped before for doctoring and staging photographs? It seems like you are trying to make the case that since an event did occur, it is permissible for the press to stage some photographs that may or may not depict what actually happened.

AP has been caught many times with doctored and staged photos. I agree that any misinformation is a bad thing because we can't possibly have informed opinions if our opinions aren't based on the truth.
I want to know though, what would it mean if these two photos were of the same man? It doesn't look to me like the photographer implied one way or the other whether they were (the captions are unclear) it doesn't look like AP implied anything in particular, and as you said the two photos were side by side. I am not being hostile, I just don't get your point is all.

[Darion]

It's a simple matter of journalistic integrity. The first photo is obviously a massive crock of bullshit.

The following pair of photographs depicts first a boy being treated for a wound on his right arm, and second the same kid with the bandage on his arm having been transposed to his head.

That does not unsettle you even a little bit, that the AFP would so brazenly run a couple bullshit photographs? I don't know how you feel on the matter, but I believe that the media's purpose is to deliver information to an audience, not stage fake medical shots for "think of the children" shock value.

[Darion]

Addendum: Original link no longer works.

[Darion]

More from the AFP:

[Malacasta]

In the first picture the boy is still being treated, on my monitor his forehead is so dark that I can't see if anything is wrong with it, but when I first saw the photo I thought there was blood his forehead and just assumed (if it was the same boy) that it got bandaged in the 2nd photo. I can't see the top of the boys arm in the 2nd photo so I have no idea whether he still has a bandage on there or not.

Are you sure the two women in those photos are the same?

Does it upset me that AP regularly runs staged or photoshopped photos? Yes, it upsets me when a news source that I had relied on in the past fucks up (for what it's worth, I can't think of a news source that hasn't).

But I'm no more upset by these specific (the two boys) photographs (even if they're total inventions and bogus) than I was by Bush standing with his glazed turkey in Iraq. Neither set would be used as evidence that something happened exactly thus. Nobody is relying on these photographs to prove an event occurred.

[Darion]

The second photograph is a similar story, which I thought I included at the bottom but apparently did not. I can't see the woman enough to tell if she is the same.

As for the second photo, the bandage in the first picture wraps around the kid's tricep enough to be able to see it from the angle in the second picture were it the same person. There is also the fact that the bandage slapped on his head is exactly the same as the one on the arm. I would also point out simple things like the fact that if the kid were the same, the IV stand would be on the opposite side as he had an insertion point on his right forearm in the first picture.

I do not see how you equate this with Bush and a turkey - this is a faked injury to a child created for dramatic effect and an outright lie that any reasonably intelligent person can discern (referring to the first and last pictures with the bullets - willing to leave margin of error on the second set).