ReutersGate Reloaded: The Adnan Hajj Story

The controversy over this past weekend about clearly photoedited works published by Reuters has not abated. Not by a long shot. Adnan Hajj's works continue to be scrutinized and Dan Riehl has uncovered a surprising fact. He's found Hajj's other job via a CSM report. He's an economic editor for the daily newspaper As-Safir. So, on top of producing photo edited works that exaggerate or distort the situation in Lebanon, he's also editing a Lebanese paper and quite likely overstating the effects of the Israeli campaign against Hizbullah as well as providing an additional outlet for his photographic business, which is what I had posited yesterday:

Will any of the other wire reports do the same and deny him publication? Or, will Arab media provide an outlet for his photos without any questions asked? Who knows.

I think we have our answer.

How is it that other news agencies are using Reuters to provide wire reports of the firing of Adnan Hajj and the killing of the Hajj photo? They continue to reject the possibility that other photos taken, particularly at Qana, were staged or sexed up in violation of the Reuters code of ethics. Perhaps they'll reconsider that possibility now that they've seen Hajj has violated the code on at least one photo, if not more.

As for the other photos, it appears Hajj has used the same subject - an older woman to document damage to Lebanese buildings. It's the same woman who's crying over the destruction of her apartment, and her house in two different parts of Beirut. Either she's the owner of multiple properties, or Hajj isn't telling us the truth about this woman, those buildings, and the situation.

Seixon deconstructs the editing done on the initial Hajj edit job and has found yet another photo that might include a bit of photo editing.

Classical Values points out a comment by Newsbusters that resonates in these troubled times for the big media outlets:

“Every once in a while you want to tell yourself that media bias is accidental and not deliberate, a sort of “they can’t help themselves” phenomenon. This is NOT one of those times.”

Tigerhawk wonders just how Reuters management can get away with no responsibility for the media mess of their own creation considering that any other company would be launching investigations and there would be calls for management shakeups. Good question, but we know the answer, don't we. Media organizations don't feel the need to answer to anyone, even their shareholders. American Thinker has a good roundup and his link to a photojournalists' code of ethics in the digital age proposal is an idea worth considering.

Cox and Forkum have inked their view on the media manipulation of the conflict in Lebanon.

Michelle Malkin has a roundup. Others to check: Ace of Spades, Confederate Yankee, and Charles at LGF (whose site has been overwhelmed by traffic since this story broke so be patient).

UPDATE:
Reuters admits that a second Adnan Hajj photo was edited and manipulated. I think the credit for this one goes to Rusty at the Jawa Report.

The second photo kill for posterity's sake:


Reuters had this to say:

Following the accusations, Reuters conceded that a second image it provided had been manipulated, and released a statement saying it had recalled all photos by Hajj. "Reuters has withdrawn from its database all photographs taken by Beirut-based freelance Adnan Hajj after establishing that he had altered two images since the start of the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese Hizbullah group," the statement said.

The news outlet said that it discovered "in the last 24 hours that he (Hajj) altered two photographs since the beginning of the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese group Hizbullah," Reuters added.

Reuters did not discover these problems. Bloggers did. It was bloggers that found clear discrepancies in these photos and photo editing, not Reuters supposed tight editorial controls. Reuters better launch an investigation into its editorial control process or else they've got a bigger problem on their hands than they're willing to concede. Meanwhile, don't think that the problem is going to be confined to Reuters. I wouldn't put it past other stringers working for AP or other media outlets to be doing similar actions.

However, Reuters did the right thing by pulling all of Hajj's photos from its database. Problem is that many are already in the public sphere and no amount of photo kills will take them back.

UPDATE:
Catch up with memeorandum as to who's blogging this story. Let the photo kills begin. Hot Air has more. Mary Katherine Ham notes that Editor and Publisher has woefully inadequate reporting on the whole Reuters mess. E&P is geared to the industry, and for it to miss the import of this story is telling.

Others blogging: Expose the Left/Rightwinged, and Sister Toldjah.

Technorati: beirut, photoshop, adnan hajj, smoke, photo manipulation, reuters.