Shock: Reuters Muslim Stringer Busted For Fauxtography

Snapped Shot has the goods, but the catch was actually made by Aftenposten.

It's not the photoshop sort of fauxtography, but the staging of a photograph for propaganda purposes that's become so popular.

On the first photo that the Reuters photographer took after a shell hit the home of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Hanieyh, it is Hamas' founder [and notorious terrorist -- ed.] Sheikh Ahmed Yassin that is hanging in a frame on the wall.

But when one of Hamas' cleaning guys was showing the shrapnel to the photographer from Reuters in an arranged photo in the same place in the house, the picture of Ahmed Yassin was suddenly gone.

Instead there was a picture on the wall, where the Palestinian Prime Minister has a prominent role.

Yup. No question about this one. Reuters photographer Mohammad Salem was caught dead to rights participating in, or at least permitting without alerting those who view his photos, Hamas to dress the scene of "his" photos in whichever way they thought would best serve their cause.

To be honest, I really have no idea why Hamas would prefer one picture over another; both feature Yassin, the second just has him pictured less prominently, and includes the Palestinian Prime Minister. But the fact is they did prefer one, and yet another Reuters stringer was perfectly willing to do whatever set decoration they liked before passing off his staged pictures as an honest record of the scene as he witnessed it.

The alteration itself is minor -- but the journalistic breach is major, and begs the question, "In what other ways is Reuters photopropagandist Mohammad Salem compromising his photos per Hamas' instructions?"

He's also got some darkly funny pictures of Hamas' idea of airport security.

Not a photoshop, actually.

posted by Ace at 03:15 PM

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