This Ongoing War: A Blog: 25-Jun-07: Pictures That Tell a Thousand Lies

Monday, June 25, 2007

25-Jun-07: Pictures That Tell a Thousand Lies

Last summer's Hizbullah war gave many of us an education in how dishonest the camera - and more importantly, the picture editor - can be in telling a news story.

We're now pleased to have discovered the estimable SnappedShot website which focuses on uncovering image manipulation in the service of agenda-driven journalism. It's a subject close to the heart and passions of Israel's friends. Just knowing that the overwhelming majority of news agency photographers in the Palestinian regime's territory are Palestinians is a step towards understanding the infuriating pattern of misleading, dishonest and ideological imagery that are a fixture of the mainstream news media.

We're particularly impressed with SnappedShot's picture essay exposing the energetic Rage Boy. (He's the gentleman on the left in the picture on the right.) Go have a look. Just viewing the pictures is an invaluable lesson in how far from objective reality you can get with imagery.

As, for example, in the case of this notorious news-photo distortion.

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THIS ONGOING WAR is not part of the activity of the Malki Foundation which was founded by us, Frimet and Arnold Roth of Jerusalem, on September 11, 2001. But it is inspired by the same tragic circumstances. The Malki Foundation (also known by its Hebrew name: Keren Malki) is a memorial to the life of our daughter, Malki who was murdered at the age of 15 in a massacre in the centre of Jerusalem carried out by Hamas.

Beyond its function as a remembrance of a beautiful life, the foundation provides tangible, concrete, invaluable support daily to several thousand Israeli families from every part of the religious and socio-economic spectrum: Christian, Moslem, Jewish, Druze and others who care at home for a seriously disabled child.

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It's the charitable organization we, the bloggers who produce This Ongoing War, established in 2001 in memory of our murdered daughter. Her name is Malki.

Keren Malki (in Hebrew, Keren means 'foundation' or 'fund') is efficient, effective, non-sectarian, non-political and unique in the good work it does. Thousands of families from every part of our richly diverse society here in Israel have benefited in concrete and meaningful ways. Donations to Keren Malki are tax-effective in Israel, Canada, UK and the United States.

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