There is a lot of talk on the Internet this week about apparent unethical behavior by photojournalists in various war zones around the world. In an era where imagery is everything, an honest portrayal of events is key. If we can’t trust the images we’re seeing, how can we trust that we know what’s going on.

Photojournalists are swarming over these sites. They can’t help but get in each others photos. In one case a video even captures photographers stopping a stretcher so they can prepare (see the little green footballs). I’d like to see one of the major news agencies put together a piece on staged photography. How about a collection of shots of the site staging? You know some of the photographers got shots of the staging as well as prepared sites. I’d also like to see some of these photo collections put in chronological order. So many of these images are moments in time that don’t connect to any recognizable timeline or location. Let’s see a collection of these photos as they were shot. One image after another. I want to see the the good shot, the great shot, and the missed shot. I want to see the photo of the photographers left boot because he fell in the rubble, everything. I think I’ll be waiting a long time.

Confederate Yankee: Schwinns of War

Is staging photos a conspiracy? Not necessarily, thought it is unethical for a news photographer, especially when the photographer is posting on a polarizing subject.

EU Referendum

This, of course, is not just about Qana – the issue is far more profound. It is about how the media reports great events, its bias and spin, selling us an “agenda” whilst all the time telling us it is presenting the objective truth. But here we have some more photographs which throw into question that objectivity.

CNN’s Robertson Now Admits: Hezbollah ‘Had Control’ of His Anti-Israel Piece | NewsBusters.org

Challenged by Reliable Sources host (and Washington Post media writer) Howard Kurtz on Sunday, Robertson suggested Hezbollah has “very, very sophisticated and slick media operations,” that the terrorist group “had control of the situation. They designated the places that we went to, and we certainly didn’t have time to go into the houses or lift up the rubble to see what was underneath,“ and he even contradicted Hezbollah’s self-serving spin: “There’s no doubt that the [Israeli] bombs there are hitting Hezbollah facilities.”

CNN’s Anderson Cooper Exposes Hezbollah’s Media Manipulations | NewsBusters.org

But instead of merely transmitting Hezbollah’s unverified and unverifiable claims to the outside world, Cooper – to his credit – exposed the efforts by Hezbollah to manipulate CNN and other Western reporters. It’s quite a contrast from the much more accommodating approach taken by his colleague, Nic Robertson, in a report that aired on a variety of CNN programs (including AC360) back on July 18, a report that Robertson himself has now conceded was put together under Hezbollah’s control.

Update: Power Line: Staging and Faking

Breaking news: Reuters has withdrawn all 920 photographs taken by Lebanese freelancer Adnan Hajj from its database.

It seems Rueters is finally catching on to what these “photo-journalists” are doing to their reputation.

Allahpundit is also all over this.
Hot Air » Blog Archive » Breaking: Reuters pulls all 920 of Adnan Hajj’s photos