Quote of the day - Charles Johnson - Little Green Footballs

This is the [New York] Times’ time-honored modus operandi—publish a shockingly biased story leaving out important information, then a day or two later, a belated correction to give them cover.

Charles Johnson - Little Green Footballs - 11-3-06

Reutersgate widening and deepening

This story from the Jerusalem Post will not be new to most of you, but it will be important years or months from now when we try to summarize the events of August 2006:

At first everyone thought they were just blowing smoke, but the debunking of a Reuters photograph by a group of Web sites has launched a fiery online war in which bloggers have taken on the mainstream media.

Bloggers, or writers on web logs, were the first to reveal that a Reuters photograph depicting plumes of black smoke rising over Beirut was doctored to enhance smoke above the city. The Web site www.LittleGreenFootballs.com is credited with first revealing the scandal, which has been dubbed Reutersgate, but the affair has spread far wider than the Reuters News Agency and into several of the most esteemed media outlets.

More than a dozen accusations of staged or doctored photographs have made their way through various Web sites in the past several weeks. None has been treated by the news outlets as seriously as the original Reuters incident, which saw the photographer Adnin Hajj fired and over 900 of his photos removed from the Reuters wire list. But numerous other outlets - including the BBC, The New York Times and AP - have been forced to recall photos or change captions following inaccuracies pointed out in online forums.

The fact that the online community rather than fellow mainstream media has become a watchdog of accuracy has surprised many who originally derided blogs as being "devoid of accuracy."

emphasis added

For the MSM/DNC to be replaced as the main source of news for Americans, we must not only expose fraudulent incidents like Reutersgate, we must follow through and take credit where credit is due. Summaries like the one above can place a week's worth of scandal into the proper context.

We must also tie each new scandal into the context of the previous scandals.

Previous - MSM/DNC scandal quiz.

- MSM/DNC scandal summary.

- "Anything we do . . . anything we see".

Reutersgate; a quiz to keep the MSM/DNC scandals in perspective.

As Reutergate rages, it is helpful to place this issue in the broader context of the old MSM/DNC news monopoly. The issue is not just Reuters. Most of the major MSM/DNC outlets have endured some scandal involving fake photos, fake documents, plagiarism, invented sources, invented facts, etc. over the past two years. As we approach the two-year anniversary of Rathergate, we must realize that the old MSM/DNC is cracking up before our eyes. Incidents of this type will accelerate in quantity as the old media struggles to retain power and pursue its political agenda.

In order to help you keep these scandals straight, here is a quiz for those who might have forgotten which scandal accompanies which "news" organization. I do not have the technical ability to include an automatic scoring mechanism, but you can check your answers at this post or this one.

The object is to match the media scandal on the first list with the MSM/DNC outlet from the list at the bottom. Some of the media outlets can be used more than once.


1. This network's President falsely accused
American soldiers of purposely shooting at
journalists.

2. This newspaper altered a photo of Condi Rice
to make her eyes appear "demonic."

3. This organization published the photo of an
unrelated car to dramatize the aftermath of
shots fired at an Italian journalist.

4. This organization falsely reported that a Koran
had been flushed down the toilet, thus touching
off riots and death across the middle east.

5. This network staged a fake canoe ride in 4
inches of water.

6. An anchor at this network attributed the Paris
riots to "African-Americans."

7. A columnist from this newspaper resigned after
she was discovered to have invented characters
for her columns.

8. Invented "fake, but accurate" standard.

9. This newspaper printed analysis of Iraqi
election results prior to the elections.

10. This network coached guests to sound angry
in the wake of Katrina.

11. A writer from this newspaper invented a story
about baby seal hunts in Canada.

12. A reporter from this newspaper faked quotes,
interviews and sources, forcing the resignation
of the executive editor. The remaining editors
and reporters remain at large.
-----------------------------------------
Match the scandals above with the MSM/DNC outlets below.

a. Los Angeles Times

b. Boston Globe

c. CNN

d. USA Today

e. New York Times

f. CBS

g. AP

h. NBC

i. Newsweek

j. Sacramento Bee

If you don't know the answers, remember, "we can't be sure of anything we do . . . anything we see."

Quote of the day - Little Green Footballs

"The rocks are getting turned over, and what’s underneath isn’t pretty. Reuters has a major scandal on their hands."

Charles from Little Green Footballs

Reuters' doctored Beruit photo vs. AP, NYT, Bill Moyers, Walt Handelsman, USA Today, etc.

This weekend's "journalistic" events have proven one thing - a Reuters photo is worth about as much as -

1) a CBS 60 Minutes report where a presidential election is at stake.

2) an AP report on crowd reaction.

3) a CNN analysis of U.S. soldier conduct.

4) a Newsweek report having anything to do with the Koran.

5) a USA Today photograph.

6) a Walt Handelsman cartoon.

7) an AP photo.

8) a Harper-Collins book photo.

9) an ABC report on urban rioting in the U.S.

10) a Bill Moyers commentary.

11) Election results in Washington State.

12) Opinion polls.

13) The New York Times.

Anything we do . . . anything we see . . .









The point is that replacing one photographer is not the answer.

--------------------------------
Update - midafternoon Monday - Reuters is withdrawing all photos taken by Adnan Hajj. H/T Michelle Malkin. We all know that this is still insufficient. It takes more than one photographer to slant the news coverage. But I am happy for the progress. At least we didn't see 12 days of stonewalling like we did during Rathergate. But the only reason Reuters reacted so quickly was the firestorm created in the blogosphere and the precedent of disgrace and shame that CBS endured as a result of that scandal.

Most of the major MSM/DNC organizations have now been bloodied by some major scandal involving fake documents, fake photos, fake sources or simply invented facts.

We are still in the middle of a long term media revolution. The old MSM/DNC is on the way out. The Reuters photo scandal is one more step on the road to wherever we are going. The post-Rathergate world will take shape one piece at a time.

Jack Higgins; Haditha; UK Times smear; Fifth columnists never stop - they simply switch tactics.

Even though the UK Guardian has retracted the slanderous photo that sought to blame the Marines for a massacre that Al Qaeda insurgents committed, the American branch of the MSM/DNC fifth column has picked up the fallen banner and continues to run with it.





Jack Higgins of the Chicago Sun-Times has reproduced the photo as a cartoon, implying that the Marinese were responsible for the deaths of the civilians in the picture.

Michelle Malkin provides e-mail addresses to which we can write in protest. Those who praised the UK Times for correcting its "mistake" will now find some other excuse to exonerate Higgins and the Sun-Times.

Whenever I identify a cartoon as perpretating a lie, someone always points out that it is "only a cartoon." Cartoons can contain lies, as this one does. What is the punch line?

I repeat my questions (with a few new ones) from several days ago - Does Higgins want our troops to be withdrawn? Does he want Al Qaeda to control Iraq, its geography, its people and its oil? If so, is he prepared to face the consequences? Is he prepared to live in a world that features a much stronger Al Qaeda in terms of manpower, money, bases of operation and power? Is he prepared to draw cartoons featuring massive American civilian casualties resulting from additional Al Qaeda attacks on U.S. soil? If so, will he attribute those massacres to the Marines also?

--------------------------------------------------------------

update Thursday June 8th.
The Chicago Sun-Times and Jack Higgins have apologized (yesterday) for the cartoon. H/T Michelle Malkin

An Apology
A cartoon by Jack Higgins in Tuesday's Chicago Sun-Times incorporated inaccurate imagery to make a statement about the allegations that U.S. Marines killed Iraqi civilians in Haditha. Jack Higgins and the Sun-Times deeply regret the mistake and apologize to the U.S. servicemen, especially those in the Marine Corps, and to our readers who were understandably offended by the cartoon. Higgins, in doing Web research on the Haditha story, searched the Internet for images. A Yahoo search engine displayed a number of photos, one of which was labeled "IraqBodi...rd.jpg." Clicking on that image took Higgins to the MSNBC/Newsweek site. On his screen then was the original Yahoo search preview image and under it a Newsweek page with a small image of the magazine's current cover with the headline "The Haditha Question." Higgins made the erroneous assumption that the image in the photo preview was a photograph of victims of the killings that unproven allegations say were committed by U.S. Marines. Further scrolling down the page would have produced another image of this photo with a caption that clearly identities the dead as victims of Iraqi insurgents. The caption reads, "Insurgents in Haditha executed 19 Shiite fishermen and National Guardsmen in a sports stadium." Again, Higgins and the editors of the Sun-Times apologize for this egregious error.

Whether we accept as genuine the apology, this episode might provide some insight into the way the MSM/DNC operates. If we assume that the Sun-Times is now telling the truth, the cartoonist made an innocent mistake in relying on the photo he found in a Yahoo search.

Maybe this is how so many MSM/DNC employees got to the point where they have no understanding of what conservatism or America or Western Civilization is all about. Maybe many of the MSM/DNC columnists, reporters, cartoonists etc. have relied on lies for many years and have no idea that there is more to conservatism and America than racism, Halliburton, warmongering, "homophobia" etc. The MSM/DNC not only lies to Americans, it lies to those who work for or in the MSM/DNC. That is often how discipline and doctrinal purity are maintained within any mass totalitarian movement, of which the MSM/DNC is a good example.

While Ann Coulter refers to "liberalism" as a religion, MSM/DNC would more properly be described as a cult, like the one in Jonestown or the followers of El Ron Hubbard, except that the MSM/DNC seems to follow no one person in particular.

My point is [and I will continue to try to define the MSM/DNC in future posts], blogbursts that expose lies might have the effect of opening the eyes of some of the MSM/DNC employees who until now have mindlessly repeated the lies of the MSM/DNC. We can only guess as to how hardened some leftists have become over the years because they had access only to MSM/DNC lies without the opportunity for responsive blogbursts like the one that exposed this lie.

My advice to Jack Higgins (if his apology is genuine) is that he must learn to be as suspicious as the paranoid conservatives are when he seeks information from MSM/DNC sources. " . . . [W]e can't be sure of anything we do . . . anything we see."

UK Times lies about Haditha photo

[Scroll down for updates - Chicago Sun-Times and Jack Higgins pick up the fifth column torch.]
------------------------------------------------------------
It has become commonplace for the left to manipulate photos in a way that would make Joe Stalin, the left's patron saint, proud.

The latest example comes from the UK Times regarding Haditha.

The Times published this photo on June 1, 2006, with the clear implication that the American Marines killed these people after blindfolding them.
June 1, 2006 - UK Times












This episode was all set to become etched in MSM/DNC theology as an article of faith until Joe from Coonass in Texas discovered the very same photo in a 2005 edition of Newsweek.
May 2005 - Newsweek




The original photo contains the following caption:

Insurgents in Haditha executed 19 Shiite fishermen and National Guardsmen in a sports stadium

Michelle Malkin has more, including what you can do about it.

Our catchphrase for observing the MSM/DNC is "we can't be sure of anything we see . . . anything we do."

Both Joe and Michelle Malkin refer to this incident in terms of "slander" and "bias" and "slanted coverage". This lie amounts to more than mere "bias" or "slander". The UK Times is acting as a fifth column. It is acting as a propaganda mouthpiece for the terrorists. The Times promotes the pullout of the American troops with false stories and manipulated photos.

The only result from the this propaganda campaign could be the pullout of American troops and the takeover of Iraq by Al Qaeda. Does the UK Times want Al Qaeda to take over Iraq? Why would any westerner want this result? How deeply does the left's hatred of the West run?

See previous examples of photo manipulation - Sgrena's car, Goodnight Moon, NY Times use of WWII artillery shell photo, Condoleeza's eyes.

Leftists apparently mistake this book for an instruction manual instead of a history book:



----------------------------------------
update - Atlas comments.

Chickenhawk provides details and recent history.
-------------------
update - 6-7-06 Jack Higgins picks up the fifth column torch.

The Culture of Ventriloquism; L.A. Times; Michael Hiltzik; Patterico

Big thumbs up to Patterico for exposing yet another example of ventriloquist journalism.

For those who have not read the story, here is Patterico's summary:

Is an L.A. Times columnist leaving comments on the Internet under assumed “sock puppet” identities — identities which he pretends is someone other than himself?

Read on and judge for yourself. As for me, I’ve made up my mind, and the answer is “yes.”

Read Patterico's post for the details.



Based on the updates to Patterico's post, either more than one L.A. Times' employee has been doing this, or Michael Hiltzik continues to do this even after his suspension.

The Washington Post and Wuzzadem weigh in also.

I have not maintained a list of MSM/DNC lies this year as I did in 2005, but this episode certainly qualifies. As the fictional character was quoted as saying in that post,

we can't be sure of anything we do . . . anything we see.

The Times' columnist's use of alter egos to convey propoganda is standard operating procedure for the MSM/DNC.

Here is entry # 3 from the bias category list:

3. Ventriloquist journalism. A common tactic of the MSM/DNC is to get others to do its dirty work. Let it appear as if someone else is doing the talking so that "media bias" won't be so obvious. [Update] MSM/DNC often uses phrases like "critics say" "some say" "experts say" "sources have told CBS news" . . . .

A previous example of ventriloquist journalism from December 2004 and related commentary:

A good ventriloquist will never let you see his mouth move. But the MSM's ventriloquist act gets more obvious every day.

Usually, ventriloquist journalism takes the form of vague references to "widespread assumptions," "popular beliefs" and "generally recognized" facts:

But as far as good old fashioned MSM/DNC propaganda is concerned, nothing beats Reuters' subtle ventriloquist journalism and well poisoning technique:

Ratzinger, the strict defender of Catholic orthodoxy for the past 23 years, was elected Pope on Tuesday despite a widespread assumption he was too old and divisive to win election.

Ventriloquist journalism is category # 3 on the bias list. Referring to a "widespread assumption" is an MSM/DNC commonly used technique that allows MSM/DNC to hide behind unnamed "others" as it spreads its propaganda.

emphasis added

That story, from April 2005, reveals the ease to which the MSM/DNC attributes its own biases and venom to the general public. In this atmosphere of widespread ventriloquism, it was too easy for Michael Hiltzik to make the transition from reliance on invented "widespread assumptions" to posting comments on others' blogs under assumed identities.

And don't forget ventriloquism's twin, the poll:

4. Polls. An offshoot of ventriloquist journalism is the MSM/DNC's reliance upon polls. The polls that the MSM/DNC uses are either (1) unreliable or blatantly false and/or (2) self-fulfilling prophecies. It is a common tendency among humans (especially those who have been softened by 70 years of the welfare state) to want to be on the winning side. When the MSM/DNC releases its polls showing some Democrat with a lead or that the "public" thinks that Social Security is just fine, those who might otherwise harbor doubts are intimidated into going along with the majority. I am sure that the MSM/DNC will continue their efforts to bully the public into acquiescing in the status quo on social security with just this tactic.

[Also - I hate polls.]

I think it is incorrect for bloggers to focus mainly on Michael Hiltzik. The fault lies in the culture of ventriloquism that pervades the MSM/DNC. If the MSM/DNC expressed its opinions in its own name instead of hiding behind contrived polls or vox populi, it never would have obtained the power that now slips further away with each passing day. We can hardly blame individual employees when they follow the pattern set by the establishment for which they toil.

I hate polls; MSM/DNC lie # 2 of 2006

Hat tip to Blonde Sagacity for pointing out a new poll showing Republican Lynn Swann leading Democrat Ed Rendell in the race for Pennsylvania governor.

Swann's lead is small, but the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette somehow has reversed the results, giving Rendell the lead.

Two days after the initial article appeared, the "mistake" has not been corrected.

I have always stated that I hate polls.

Check out item #4 from the bias category list:

4. Polls. An offshoot of ventriloquist journalism is the MSM/DNC's reliance upon polls. The polls that the MSM/DNC uses are either (1) unreliable or blatantly false and/or (2) self-fulfilling prophecies. It is a common tendency among humans (especially those who have been softened by 70 years of the welfare state) to want to be on the winning side. When the MSM/DNC releases its polls showing some Democrat with a lead or that the "public" thinks that Social Security is just fine, those who might otherwise harbor doubts are intimidated into going along with the majority. I am sure that the MSM/DNC will continue their efforts to bully the public into acquiescing in the status quo on social security with just this tactic.

When you hear of polls, always remember the exit poll fiasco of November 2004. We can expect more dishonest exit polls this year.

Polls should not matter to us, as our decisions are determined by economics, history, culture and other substantive issues. The left's decisions are determined partially by the bandwagon effect, of which polls play a major role.
-------------------------------
update - New link for Rasmussen poll

MSM/DNC Lie #1 of 2006

The New York Times, which posted the most outright lies during 2005 of any MSM/DNC outlet, is off to a fast start with the first lie of 2006. It seems that the Times has been caught posting a photo of a WWII artillery shell next to a damaged house in Pakistan, as proof that the Americans launched a missile at civilians.

first lie of the year











American Thinker comments at length. Did the Times know that the photo was staged? Did they care? They care now that they have been caught. "Without the internet and blogosphere, probably they would have gotten away with it."

As the fictional character from my previous post stated . . . . . "we can't be sure of anything we do . . . anything we see."

Click here for the list of lies of 2005 and the winning totals broken down by media outlet.