No agenda here!! Reuters fakes Lebanon Photos!

I blogged here regarding a Detroit Lakes Tribune editorial which likened bloggers to "yellow journalists.

Some harken to the days of yellow journalism, when newspapers were firmly on the side of one political group or another — like the historic “We Win” headline on the “Cheers” television show reruns.

As our St. Paul bureau chief, Don Davis, points out in a column, all blogs are not created equal.

The simple truth is, most are not news, and not reliable.

Implying of course, that the MSM is as pure as the wind driven snow:

And neo-conservatives may want to lighten up on their constant attempts to undermine the mainstream media. Believe it or not, most reporters and editors do strive to be accurate, fair and unbiased in their work — regardless of their political views.

and goes on to say

Turnabout is fair play, and the press is certainly not above criticism — mistakes are made and poor news judgment happens.

But continually undermining the mainstream media for cynical political reasons is a dangerous game, and one that we fear could ultimately undermine democracy itself.

Translation: Hey bloggers--we're used to slapping any old story out there and not getting fact checked.

Knock it off.

Well, in the tradition of CBS News and Dan Rather, that paragon of impartiality, Reuters, in its efforts to strive to be "accurate, fair and unbiased," have published some faked photos of Lebanon! From Little Green Footballs:

OK, now things are getting weird.

This Reuters photograph shows blatant evidence of manipulation. Notice the repeating patterns in the smoke; this is almost certainly caused by using the Photoshop “clone” tool to add more smoke to the image. (Hat tip: Mike.)

It’s so incredibly obvious, it reminds me of the faked CBS memos. Smoke simply does not contain repeating symmetrical patterns like this, and you can see the repetition in both plumes of smoke. There’s really no question about it.

But it’s not only the plumes of smoke that were “enhanced.” There are also cloned buildings. (See below.)

Smoke billows from burning buildings destroyed during an overnight Israeli air raid on Beirut’s suburbs August 5, 2006. Many buildings were flattened during the attack. REUTERS/Adnan Hajj (Read the whole thing!)

It would appear that Mr. Nathan Bowe of the Detroit Lakes Tribune should probably look into the mirror of his own profession before casting aspersions on bloggers. Like I said:

Bloggers do nothing to "undermine democracy." Bloggers are a check and balance to media--a virtual town hall. To me, that is the essence of democracy and freedom of political speech.

No, DL Tribune--we don't need bloggers to undermine democracy.

The New York Times has taken that mantle on quite nicely, thank you.

And now you can add Reuters to that list.

***UPDATE***

LGF reports that Reuters issued a statement that they pulled the fake photo, yet LGF finds that Yahoo News still has the photo posted.

***UPDATE*** (8/6/2006, 2:22p CDT)

Beth at My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy has Reuters revised photoshop. Reuters says that they apologize for an "improper use" of photo editing equipment. Apparently, someone has now "properly" used photo editing equipment...

I guess, if at first you don't succeed...