UK Times lies about Haditha photo

[Scroll down for updates - Chicago Sun-Times and Jack Higgins pick up the fifth column torch.]
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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:



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update - Atlas comments.

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

Goodnight Moon, Clement Hurd, The Commissar Vanishes, MSM Lie # 52

H/T Michelle Malkin for the story of the doctoring of the photograph of Clement Hurd, the illustrator of the classic childrens book, Goodnight Moon. The publisher has doctored the photograph of the illustrator in recent editions of the book to white out a cigarette in Hurd's hand.

from the New York Times

Check out Michelle Malkin for the whole story. I am pleasantly surprised that the Times would even mention this story, let alone publish the photos.

This story reminded me of a book I saw on the shelf years ago. "The Commissar Vanishes" is described as follows by Amazon.com:

In Stalinist Russia, it was commonplace for Soviet history to be rewritten with inconvenient participants removed--often men or women who had aided the Communist Revolution in the early days and then had somehow fallen afoul of Stalin himself. In The Commissar Vanishes, English art historian David King assembles an impressive body of photographs and artwork that shows the process whereby a hero could overnight be made into villain. "The physical eradication of Stalin's political opponents at the hands of the secret police was swiftly followed by their obliteration from all forms of pictorial existence," King rightly notes: in one noteworthy sequence reproduced on the cover, a photograph of Stalin with three revolutionary leaders is airbrushed and cropped and clipped until, one by one, those leaders disappear and only Stalin is left--conveying the message that Stalin carried the Russian Revolution by himself. Another photograph from the 1920s depicts a meeting of dozens of trade-union and Bolshevik leaders; by the late 1930s, all but a handful of them had been murdered at Stalin's orders. King's work restores some of these men and women to history and illustrates the essential inhumanity of totalitarian thought.

I never bought the book, so I will have to take Amazon's word at face value.



I realize that Stalinist Russia and Goodnight Moon are worlds apart. But the difference is only one of degree. I take the rewriting of history very seriously. If the left believes it can rewrite history for our own good, what else will it do?
The rewriting of history is a prerequisite for tyranny.
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previous photo lies - USA Today demonizes Condoleezza Rice.

- AP misprepresents the photos of a Giuliana Sgrena’s car.

Complete list of lies of 2005.

MSM Lie #47 - USA Today demon-eye-zes Condoleezza Rice

I have taken forever to join this blogswarm, but it is never too late to catalogue another MSM Lie.




You have all seen the photos, including USA Today's doctored photo on the left.
Samantha Burns included a detailed description of how this type of thing is done. When you consider the effort that is required for this kind of misrepresentation, it gives you insight into the mentality of those in the MSM/DNC who determine what we see.

USA Today's lame apology almost merits its own entry on our list of lies:

Editor's note: The photo of Condoleezza Rice that originally accompanied this story was altered in a manner that did not meet USA TODAY's editorial standards.

emphasis added

I believe that the original photo does meet USA Today's editorial standards. USA withdrew the original photo because of pressure from the blogsphere - not because of some "standards" at USA Today.

The photo has been replaced by a properly adjusted copy. Photos published online are routinely cropped for size and adjusted for brightness and sharpness to optimize their appearance. In this case, after sharpening the photo for clarity, the editor brightened a portion of Rice's face, giving her eyes an unnatural appearance. This resulted in a distortion of the original not in keeping with our editorial standards.

emphasis added

Whenever one sees a non-apology apology (a/k/a "Durbin" apology), the apology begins with a reference to something irrelevant. Who cares if they sometimes crop photos for size? That has nothing to do with altering Condi's eyes to make her look like a cartoon.

A real apology would have acknowledged that the USA Today tried to demonize Ms. Rice and got caught.

Mike's Noise provides other photoshop examples.
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click here for the complete list of lies of 2005.