N.Y. Times raising the dead?

N.Y. Times raising the dead?
News agencies run photographs of 'deceased' who 'appear alive'
Posted: August 9, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

An Associated Press photograph of a "dead man" who is sitting upright underneath a sheet and a New York Times series that appears to have one man as both rescuer and victim are prompting more questions about U.S. media coverage of the Mideast conflict.

The AP photo shows half a dozen "bodies" in a row on the ground and covered by sheets, with what appears to be a young boy standing on some rubble in the background.

It is among the latest U.S. media photographs of the Mideast war to fall under suspicion. Another photograph of a "body" that was described by the New York Times as having been pulled from the dusty rubble of a building, although there was no dust on the body, also was being reviewed.

The AP caption described the scene as bodies of Lebanese residents in the southern village of Oana. They are, the caption says, "laid covered after they were removed from under the rubble of a demolished building … that was struck by Israeli war plane missiles."

But on the website for Jihad Watch, the photograph was posted with the notation "AP raises the dead!"

"What? Don't dead men sit up?" said one blogger on the site run by Mideast expert Robert Spencer. In addition to directing the website, he's the author of "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam," "Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions About the World's Fasting-Growing Faith" and other books.

The questions come just days after another international wire service, Reuters, withdrew hundreds of photographs from its archive that were contributed by a single photographer. That happened after there were allegations a picture of Beirut after an attack in the war between the terrorist Hezbollah organization and the Israeli military was altered.

The photographers who criticized the photograph said it blatantly was manipulated to add black smoke to the scene.

The Reuters photographer was suspended during his company's investigation but officials said they have a no-tolerance policy for manipulating digital photographs.

On the Ynetnews.com site, the Reuters agency said "photo editing software was improperly used on this image."

"Reuters takes such matters extremely seriously as it is strictly against company editorial policy to alter pictures," said Reuters spokeswoman Moira Whittle.

Charles Johnson, of the Little Green Footballs blog, said the evidence of digital manipulation of the image was "blatant." His site is known for opening the floodgates on the forged documents about President Bush.

AP said on its website that it delivers more than 1,000 photos a day from events as they happen.

In the case of the Times, a photograph on the GatewayPundit blog shows a "body" allegedly pulled from the dusty rubble of a building, only there's no dust on the man's body. In fact, the muscles of his leg appeared to be flexed as if holding himself in position.

The caption said the local mayor was appealing to the Israelis to allow authorities time to pull the bodies out of the rubble because they were still buried.

However, the body even holds a hat tucked between his arm and his chest.

And other photographs in a series published that day appear to show the same person walking around and helping as a rescuer, not a victim.
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I guess Ray Stevens is going to have a new video for, "Sitting Up With The Dead."