Busted
Michael J. Totten
Lebanese bloggers Rampurple and Jeha, who both show up at times in my comments section, busted Hezbollah and Michel Aoun for peddling a blatantly doctored photograph on Hezbollah's An Manar TV channel.
Here is a screen shot of Aoun holding up the photo on TV.
Below is the photo. It supposedly shows a (Christian) Lebanese Forces “militia man” in the lower-left corner pointing a weapon at Lebanese soldiers. Notice the cross on his sleeve. The man and the cross were photoshopped in.
Here is the real picture.
And here is the picture that was used as bad photoshop fodder. It was taken during last summer’s war and was itself criticized as propaganda for its inaccurate caption. Notice the cross on the sleeve isn't there. That's because this man is Hezbollah, not a member of the Christian Lebanese Forces.
Hats off to Lebanese bloggers for exposing this one. Busting propagandists for fauxtography isn’t just for Americans any more.
UPDATE and CORRECTION: Lebanese blogger Nancy says Aoun and Hezbollah were busted on television by Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea. So this isn't just a blogosphere thing. And N10452 posted this at Rampurple's site, not Rampurple herself. Credit where it's due.
UPDATE: Beirut's Daily Star picked up the story.
UPDATE: Apologies to EU Referendum. I should have said "Westerners," not "Americans."
what do you think are the chances that Lebanese TV will pick up on this and give the expose some airtime?
"Hi, I'm not really a Hezbollah fighter, but I play one for Reuters and AP..."
that's great! I have the sense that it's exactly the publicizing of these sorts of foot-in-mouth gotchas that will eventually undermine the credibility of people like Nasrallah and Aoun.
Of course we all lose our tempers now and then. Dean freely admits to being imperfect in this regard, which is why regulars to this establishment will generally be cut more slack than people who we don't know very well.
Still: behave like an adult, or go find somewhere else to play. Thanks.