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Monday, January 16, 2006

Incompetent bastards in the media 
Well, because Macs suck so hard, I can't post the pic. But Snapping Turtle found a picture from Agents France-Presse which shows a Pakistani tribesman standing in a ruined house, next to a piece of unexploded ordnance. The caption - which Snapping Turtle says is "on the front page of the Globe, and possibly elsewhere" says,

""A Pakistani tribesman stand by a unexploded ordinance (sic) at his house which was damaged in an alleged U.S. air strike in the Bajur tribal zone near the Afghan border Saturday."

But, as Snapping turtle points out, there are some problems with the picture, as described by the caption.

Link: http://www.snappingturtle.net/flit/archives/2006_01_14.html#005714

Go on to the page to find out what they are, and then ask yourself if a commitment to newsroom diversity - to include including veterans in the newsroom staff, could have prevented AFP and the Globe from making themselves out to look like total morons.

Splash, out

Jason

UPDATE: Here's the photo, in context: http://www.snappingturtle.net/flit/archives/2006_01_14.html#005714

The photo credit is to Thir Kahn, AFP/Getty Images.

I would wonder whether Thir is really that ignorant of ordnance basics, or if he's in on the con. Maybe someone with more time than I have today could look up some of his other images and see if a pattern emerges.

Comments:
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2006/01/14/international/worldspecial/14cnd-afghan.ready.html

Made it all the way to the NYT website.
 
Heh. I remember in 2001, when the bombing of Afghanistan first started, my newspaper had a front page picture of something to the effect of "Afghani villagers around an unexploded American bomb."

The "bomb" was a long silver painted tank, with two fins on the end of it.

Yup, it was an external fuel tank.

Yet, according to the press, it was a silver painted "bomb." Classic.
 
The pic is of a an expended 155mm smoke round. It's a hollow shell. Note they're holding it up so you can't see the hole in the bottom where the cannisters came out.
 
You'd think Thir Khan might've known the difference. Back in September, he was present for a display of both artillery shells and rockets...

http://editorial.gettyimages.com/source/search/details_pop.aspx?iid=55815942
 
The torture of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib has shocked the country. But an equally important revelation comes from the same Red Cross report that originally detailed the abuses: Some 70 percent to 90 percent of the people detained by the military, the Red Cross estimated, were innocent of any wrongdoing. They were simply swept up in the passion of war.
 
Kyle, precisly the point everyone is making, you can't believe the media. These 70-90 percent of claimed abuses were by the same people who admitted lying to investigators and the media to use the allegations against the US. Torture at Abu Ghraib? Humiliation perhaps, but how do you compare human pyramids and photographing as torture to cutting off innocent people's heads? Many of these people aren't even military. I think you need to revisit what the word "torture" means.

Do you believe everything you read without question, or only that which fits your world view whether it's true or not?
 
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