AP whitewashes Hizballah crimes
By Tony Abu X. | Friday, April 28, 2006 | Link | 1 comments
The AP covers a Hizb Allah ceremony commemorating the 10th anniversary of the "Qana Massacre", stating (via LGF):
The ‘Qana massacre’ is a reference to the more than 100 Lebanese civilians killed by an Israeli artillery bombardment of a U.N. base in the southern Lebanese village of Qana in April 1996. The victims, including women and children, had taken refuge in the U.N. base during an Israeli offensive against Hezbollah guerrillas.This statement implies that Israel deliberately bombarded the UN camp. But in fact Israel was returning fire on Hizb Allah, which had been shelling Isreal from positions they had set up right next to the camp. From the UN report on the incident (a report which then goes on to bash Israel, of course):
a) Between 1200 and 1400 hours on 18 April, Hezbollah fighters fired two or three rockets from a location 350 metres south-east of the United Nations compound ...This has been a longtime tactic used by Hizb Allah (and before them, by the PLO during their decade long occupation of southern Lebanon): to launch attacks against Israel from civilian positions in order to draw Israeli fire and create civilian casualties. Unfortunately, the western mainstream media has been all too willing to use such incidents (including failing to provide the full context of the incident) to paint Israel as an evil aggressor.
(b) Between 1230 and 1300 hours, they fired four or five rockets from a location 600 metres south-east of the compound ...(c) About 15 minutes before the shelling, they fired between five and eight rounds of 120 millimetre mortar from a location 220 metres south-west of the centre of the compound. ... According to witnesses, the mortar was installed there between 1100 and 1200 hours that day, but no action was taken by UNIFIL personnel to remove it. (On 15 April, a Fijian [UN soldier] had been shot in the chest as he tried to prevent Hezbollah fighters from firing rockets.)
Hiding behind civilians does not grant terrorists immunity from retaliation, and it absolutely does not negate Israel's right -- its moral and legal right -- to defend itself. Certainly, the collateral death of children is tragic, but those guilty for the murders are Hizb Allah, not Israel.
Update:
It should also be noted that the reason the civilians had sought refuge at the UN camp was that they were fleeing their village -- from which HA had been shelling Israel. As I understand it, HA then followed the villagers to the UN camp and continued their attacks from there.
Second Update:
I am thoroguhly disgusted by the view held by many of my fellow Lebanese (if not most, including many Christians) that Hizb Allah is a legitmate "resistance" movement -- a view held even while simultaneously cursing HA as crazy fanatics. Lebanon will never recover from the last few decades of war and Syrian-PLO occupation until the Lebanese view Israel as legitimate, and recognize that the Hizb Allah "resistance" movement is nothing more than a continuation of the Arabist-Islamist war that has been waged over the last few decades -- by Syria, Iran, the PLO and others -- against Israel, against the West and against Lebanon . I will write more about this when I have time.
Reuters manipulates news photo
By Tony Abu X. | Friday, September 16, 2005 | Link | 35 comments
Charles at LGF points to an asinine news photo by Reuters of President Bush writing a note at the UN. This image has been manipulated in Photoshop or similar photo editing software. (UPDATE: and now Reuters is covering it up -- see below)
As can be seen in the picture below, the area of the photo containing the paper has had its contrast heavily boosted; the histogram, analyzing the area enclosed by the dashed line, shows that most pixels have been pushed to either white (the peak on the right side of the graph) or black (the peak on the left side of the graph). There are almost no pixels that have an intermediate brightness; all smooth gradations of brightness are gone.
By contrast, the right side of the photo showing the President's hand has a brightness distribution you would normally expect in a real-world scene: there are many pixels at all brightness levels.
Note that the artificailly enhanced text is darker (actualy black) than even the darkest shadows in the un-manipulated part of the photo; this is not what you would expect from pencil -- even a magic marker would not appear that black in a photo.
Further evidence of the above manipulation can be seen in the band of non-enhanced text surrounding the index finger. Here, the person selecting the manipulation region tried to keep away from the finger to avoid affecting it (which would have made the manipulation even more obvious.)
So what's wrong with publishing this photo?
First of all, publishing this photo is a violation of privacy (using a telephoto lens and image editing software) with the intent to protray the president in a negative light. In a time of war, where US military and diplomatic success depends (at least in a small part) on the overseas image of the President and the office, Reuters' crude manipulation and attempt to belittle the President amounts to propaganda for the enemy.
Second, this may also be a violation of UN rules for vistors at the UN building since this type of imaging can be used to spy on delegates.
Finally, by not stating that they have heavily processed the photo in image editing software, Reuters violates journalism's ethical standards once again (I have written in detail on manipulative photojournalism previously). Any manipulation for any purpose other than improving image qualty must be explicitly stated up front.
UPDATE:
Charles now links to Reuter's explanation that "The white parts of the picture were overexposed, so a Reuters processor used Photoshop to burn down the note. This is a standard practice for news photos, [Reuters picture editor] Hershorn says, and the picture was not manipulated in any other way."
This of course is total nonsense. Reuters is lying about the type of processing they used, and the reason they used it:
If this area really had been overexposed and then "burned down", you still wouldn't have the extreme contrast we see here (in fact burning would reduce the contrast). And they are implying that the goal was only to improve the quality of the photo. In fact this is not the case. The processing, because it is so extreme, was clearly intended to reveal the text of the message, and actually makes the quality of the photo much worse -- note the harsh, unnatural look of the papers and paper clip
New Bin Laden video
By Tony Abu X. | Saturday, October 30, 2004 | Link | 4 comments
LGF has a link to the new Bin Laden video. Here are my comments:
It is ironic, and utterly disgusting, that Bin Laden defends his savagery using the example of Lebanon, since it was his fascist-terrorist allies, Syria, the PLO, and Hizb Allah, who destroyed it.
The incidents that affected me directly go back to 1982 and afterward, when America allowed Israelis to invade Lebanon, with the help of the American 6th Fleet.
Israel invaded with the co-operation of the Lebanese government, under two co-operation treaties, in order to protect Israel by ridding Lebanon of terrorist-fascist armies occupying and waging war against Lebanon at the time, namely the PLO and Syrian forces. Similarly, the Lebanese goverment, overwhelmed by the Syrian and PLO forces, requested the protection of US forces and the Sixth Fleet.
As I watched the destroyed towers in Lebanon, it occurred to me punish the unjust the same way (and) to destroy towers in America so it could taste some of what we are tasting and to stop killing our children and women.
They were not your women and children - they were the victims of your murderous Syrian, Palestinian, and Islamist allies, the same people who also destroyed those towers (such as the Beirut Holiday Inn, the Murr Tower, the US Embassy Building).
Surf's up!
By Tony Abu X. | Friday, August 27, 2004 | Link | 0 comments
Windsurfing medal is first gold for Israel. Congratulations!
From The Miami Herald:
"Every time we have a happy day like this, it is a victory over terrorism and the suffering that dominates our lives."
The medal is also a message to terrorists, Kramer said - that Israel will not give up.
"We in Israel don't talk too much about the 11, but it is always in our minds," he said. "We have always been bothered that the Olympic family has never really acknowledged what happened, never had a moment of silence or a ceremony at the opening or closing ceremonies to remember these sportspeople who were killed while representing peace at the Olympics. It's as if the Olympic family wants to forget them. But this medal proves that life goes on, that we are still competing, and that terrorism will not prevail."
Tip: Cox and Forkum -- see their cartoon and comments.
Moon Landing 35th Anniversary
By Tony Abu X. | Tuesday, July 20, 2004 | Link | 1 comments
Congratulations USA! Today is the 35th anniversary of the first landing on the Moon.
Refs: Space.com, Transterrestrial Musings.
Squeek squeek
By Tony Abu X. | Friday, July 16, 2004 | Link | 0 comments
One year ago ... 
(Sound) |
Today ...
(Sound) |
Ref: Arafat bans UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, a longtime PLO sympathiser, from the West Bank after the envoy criticised Arafat for blocking reforms. (Tip: LGF)
No words today
By Tony Abu X. | Wednesday, July 14, 2004 | Link | 0 comments
Image processed in Photoshop. Click for original
Maayan Naim, 19, murdered by Arab terrorists
Refs: Eurabin Times and Daily Blitz
I show you deadly biological weapon!
By Tony Abu X. | Saturday, July 03, 2004 | Link | 0 comments
Ref: Command Post . (Appologies au président de la république .)
Culture of darkness
By Tony Abu X. | Tuesday, June 22, 2004 | Link | 0 comments
QUESTION: How many Arabs does it take to change a light bulb?
ANSWER: None. They don't change the light bulb -- they just sit in the dark and scream about the Zionist-American conspiracy to keep them in darkness.
I'm not sure where I first heard this joke, but I've told it to a number of Arabs and their response is uniform:
First, they laugh at how funny it is. Then they agree to its profound insight into the true cause of the Arab world's problems. Then they comment on how the Arabs really would change if ... if only the Yahood and Amrikaan would let them ... and if only they would stop oppressing the Arabs ... and anyway Amreeka had it coming on 9/11 ... and ... and ...
Evil
By Tony Abu X. | Sunday, June 20, 2004 | Link | 1 comments
Context:
The Arab and Islamic world is dominated by a culture in which children are physically and emotionally brutalized, in which children are denied toys, in which there is no love, no intimacy or tenderness. This culture of savagry, this evil, must be stopped.
Chirac explores diplomatic avenues
By Tony Abu X. | Sunday, June 13, 2004 | Link | 0 comments
|
READERS POLL
A) An erudite commentary on the geopolitical events of our day. B) An example of political photo-cartooning at its best: witty, subtle -- quel est le mot juste? -- nuancee? C) A distasteful, juvenile, asinine farce -- in other words, Chirac's anti-American policy during the past two years.
|
French President Jacques Chirac: "We must thoroughly explore all diplomatic avenues"
|
Arafat reacts to Sharon plan
By Tony Abu X. | Monday, May 24, 2004 | Link | 1 comments
The AP
reports
Yassir Arafat has fortified his headquarters with junked cars in anticipation of an Israeli attack.
"I am going to enter this battle with my gun by my side. I will resist until I become a martyr," the article quotes Arafat as saying.
Meanwhile, this
AFP photo
captured the Chairman's reaction ...
The Most Hated Man in the World
By Tony Abu X. | Friday, May 21, 2004 | Link | 1 comments
The following is a hypothetical question:
What would you do if you were, like Israeli PM Ariel Sharon, the most hated person in the world?
What if you were denounced by world leaders, condemned in world councils, sneered at contemptously by intellectuals, and, at best, regarded by nearly everyone in the world as a fanatical psychopath?
What if you were seen as the obstacle to peace, the killer of babies, the most evil representative of the most evil people of the most evil country in the world?
And what if all this hatred was directed at you not for any vices, but for your virtues, for everything you believe to be good and true and right, for your commitment to defending your country's freedom and stopping the slaughter of pregnant women and children?
Would you have the courage to stand by your convictions? or would you yield to the world's wishes to compromise, relent, give in?
Would you trust the evidence of your eyes and the power of your mind to determine that what you believe is right? Or would you surrender the autonomy of your mind to the six billion people who say you are wrong? After all, they say, who are you to think that your mind is better than six billion people's? Isn't truth determined by democratic vote? And who are you to think that your petty, selfish needs for self-defense are more important than the feelings of the world?
What would you do if you were in PM Sharon's place? What will PM Sharon do? Will he find the courage to use the necessary military force to defend Israel, or will he surrender to the grey fog?
Image is a photoprocessed version of a photo similar to this one.
In Cold Blood
By Tony Abu X. | Friday, May 21, 2004 | Link | 2 comments
Earlier this week, five members of the Hatuel family were murdered by Palestinian terrorists. The four girls and their eight-month pregnant mother were shot at point blank range. The mother was then shot in the stomach.
If any one is interested in understanding the true nature of the Middle East conflict, these murders, along with the scene of a Palestinian mob displaying the flesh of their "martyrs" (see below), are a distillation of the war into its essence, into simple, clear, concrete representations of the root cause of so much death and destruction: the visciousness of Arab culture, its militant contempt for human life.
Needless to say, The Palestinian Authority honored the murderers.
Outside Israel, there was little public outrage and few condemnations.
Image created by processing these photos in Photoshop.
Swarm of vermin
By Tony Abu X. | Thursday, May 06, 2004 | Link | 3 comments
LGF points out another
Palestinian car swarm,
a disgusting, barbaric phenomenon in which the Palestinian Mob decends on terrorists' smoldering car, post-Israeli justice, to retrieve - and proudly display - pieces of the terrorists' flesh.
Dialogue added to this AP photo.
UPDATE 22/7/2004 -- Charles has created a car swarm slide show at LGF.
Try hydrochloric acid
By Tony Abu X. | Thursday, May 06, 2004 | Link | 0 comments
Dialogue added to this AP photo
Saint Rachel Leading the Children
By Tony Abu X. | Tuesday, May 04, 2004 | Link | 0 comments
Portrait of Rachel Corrie"
Distinguished Leader of the Great Peoples' Syrian Arab Republic
By Tony Abu X. | Tuesday, May 04, 2004 | Link | 0 comments
(a.k.a. Turtle)
Manipulated version of this photo
An Analysis of Biased Photojournalism Techniques
By Tony Abu X. | Monday, May 03, 2004 | Link | 8 comments
In text and video journalism, systemic bias and slanting has been documented extensively, exposing media anti-Americanism, anti-Westernism and sympathy for leftist, authoritarian and primitivistic ideologies and regimes (for examples, see coverage at sites such as Honest Reporting, That Liberal Media, Backspin, CAMERA.org, Dhimmi Watch, Little Green Footballs )
Here, I extend this scrutiny to news photographs, highlighting some of the esthetic techniques -- the same techniques used in fine-art, advertising and other forms of photography -- that biased photojournalists use to slant news photographs.
Note that this analysis does not cover misleading captions. For coverage of biased captioning, see this article and this article at CAMERA. (A classic example of false captioning involves this photo of a Jewish boy, bloodied by Arabs and being protected by an Israeli soldier -- mis-identified as a Palestinian boy being beaten by the soldier.)
The images shown here are from the AFP, AP and Reuters news service photos available at Yahoo news photos, and in particular the Middle East Conflict slideshow. Due to bandwidth limitations, I have selected only a few representative examples of biased photojournalism; there are many, many more at the above links .
THE TILTED CAMERA
One of the first tricks photography students learn (and often overuse) is the tilted camera. Tilting the camera is a simple way to add dynamism and drama by introducing diagonal lines into an otherwise placid image.
In this photo, the camera is tilted to create a sense of chaos and terror, suggesting heavy-handed police tactics are being used against "peace" demonstrators. (Readers of LGF will recognise this photo as having been captioned giving the officer's name, which is Jewish.) But if we look closely at the photo, we can see that the scene is actually quite calm. |
Here we see Arabs milling about after an Israeli strike. But why is the camera tilted? The photographer isn't running or under duress; there's no imminent danger, nothing that would prevent the photographer from composing the shot properly -- yet the photographer has chosen to tilt the camera. |
Waving the glorious flag of the revolucion! Here, the tilted camera aims to generate excitement for the Arab cause. |
THE SILHOUETTE
A photographer can impart a sense of mystery and romance to his subjects by silhouetting them against a lighter background. Here, the Palestinian terrorist (the media usually use "militant" or some other innocuous term) is portrayed as the noble savage, the untamed, swarthy romantic revolutionary. (Yes, a New York Times editorial last week referred to Arafat -- a mass murderer -- as a romantic revolutionary )
Here, they have their hero on a horse, Lawrence of Arabia style: |
THE VIGNETTE
A photographer can create a sense of intimacy by framing the subject with an object in the foreground. In the following two photos, this is done to impart a sense of poignancy to elicit sympathy for the subjects.
In this photo, we are given an intimate glimpse of the inner sanctum where the Zionist cabal hatches its nefarious plots:
SELECTIVE FOCUS
Using selective focus and blurring, the photographer can draw attention to his subject. In the next two photographs, a large lens opening is used to blur the background while keeping the subject in focus. This is a useful technique for portrait photography: with a blurred background, attention is focused on the subject. Here, this technique is used to create a sense of poignancy.
In the next photo, moving objects are blurred by leaving the lens open for an extended period; the stationary elements remain in focus, while anything moving is blurred, drawing attention to the stationary elements:
THE VISUAL CLICHE
The photographic cliche bypasses rational argument and assumes its conclusion by sheer repetition and ignoring context. The Yahoo Middle East slideshows feature endless examples of the same few cliche'd themes portraying Israel as a violent aggressor, and Arabs as the it's victims. The following are a few examples. (other notable cliches not shown here include: the rushing of the wounded Arabs to the hospital, the wailing of the hajjahs, and of course the car swarm )
In this picture, we are shown the innocent child versus the robotic killers. |
The elderly Arab man maintaining his simple dignity as he grieves over his house, demolished by the evil Israelis. Omitted context: as head of his household, he knew full well his house was being used to plan and launch murderous terrorist attacks; if he had any dignity, he would have put a stop to such activities. |
The scheming Sharon. (it is remarkable just how many of Sharon pictures there are in the Yahoo slideshow) |
CONCLUSIONS
The point of this post is not that the techniques shown here are invalid in general -- but that they invalid in news photos.
These techniques (except perhaps the cliche) are certainly valid in artistic or editorial photographs because they allow the artist to express his viewpoint in the image. But for the same reason, they must not be used in photojournalism. To pass off such photos as news photos -- as is done in the AP, AFP, and Reuters slideshows at Yahoo -- is dishonest and unethical and constitutes deliberate pro-terrorist propaganda. Such photos need to be clearly presented and labled as editorial or artistic images. Like fiction and print journalism, art and photojournalism should not be mixed.
If photographers want to excercise their artistic and editorial talents, there is no shortage of print and electronic outlets for their work.
But for news photographs, photographers should abide by strict standards to ensure objectivity: there should be no intentional blurring or unusual composition or framing. Lighting should be as clear as possible. The greatest range possible should be in focus. No excessive lens disortion should be present. And a balanced range of subjects should be photographed to give the viewer a full context to the story.
Finally, even as editorial or art photos, the photos above are manipulative, dishonest, anti-Israeli and pro-terrorist. The AP, AFP, Reuters and Yahoo News are a disgrace.
Welcome to Photoblog
By Tony Abu X. | Saturday, May 01, 2004 | Link | 0 comments
Whats up with this blog?
Most of the images on this blog are supposed to be a form of political photo-cartoons. I'm still experimenting with the concept, so please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions.
My editorial stance is (in case its not apparent from the posts):
This blog supports -- as the moral, and only, means of securing peace and freedom -- a massive, total war against the Arab and Islamic dictatorships (this includes the right of Israel to defend itself). This blog is also sharply critical of the brutal, de-humanising culture predominant in the Arab and Islamic world.
Also, as a Lebanese, I support the full disarmament and criminal prosecution of the terrorist Hizb Allah, as well as any other Baathist Syrian or other totalitarian elements in the country; immediate and complete normalization of relations with Israel; prosecution of and reparations from the Syrian and Palestinian regimes for war crimes committed in Lebanon.
TECHNICAL NOTE:
The images posted on this blog typically start out as photographs obtained from the Web, which are then changed in one of three ways (indicated next to each image):
Dialogue added to an otherwise unchanged photo,
Photo processed (techniques similar to those of the photographic darkroom are used) and
Manipulated in Photoshop (anything goes).
In addition, unchanged photos are occaisionally used
CONTACT:
Any comments or suggestions are appreciated. Thanks to everyone who already helped with suggestions.
Send email to p_blog at yahoo.com (change "at" to "@", no spaces)
