Where Bob Tarantino* left off. Chris Selley;

The Star sure gives its staff writers a lot of editorial rope.

“The question was blunt and penetrating.”

You don’t often see those two adjectives together, eh? Perhaps because they’re nearly opposites. There’s nothing probing about a rhetorical question posed by someone whose position is clear (“Too many dead soldiers! Get out! Get out! Aieeeeeee!”) but who’s too lazy to cobble together an actual argument.

Check it out.

Professional photographer Sean McCormick has restored the colour on the “after” satellite photo mentioned in this earlier entry .

Compare it to the b/w version used by the New York Times and judge for yourself whether the “desolation” of the bombed out Hezbollah controlled areas is “amplified”

Bumped as more evidence of photo phakery in the mainstream media continues to pour in.

That screwy, ballyhooey Hezbollywood!
Where any office boy
Or young mechanic
can be a panic
With just a good-looking deadpan!

Now showing: The Passion Of The Toys… (link updated)
AND – more, more, more and more.

Who’s that he’s aiming his rifle at, though? Are Israeli troops advancing? Might that fire be the product not of an airstrike but of IDF artillery?
Here’s a closeup:
They’re burning tires. It’s a garbage dump.

Finally – Dead men walking at the New York Times.
Ynet news – Associated Press facing questions.
mother of all photo staging roundups.
Rusty Shackleford wonders if Haji has been collecting payment under two different names;

In addition to being a stringer for Reuters, Hajj is also an editor at as Safir. Why is that important?
We know that as Safir is an openly anti-Israel Arabic news outlet in Lebanon. Right Winged has this excellent expose of them here.
The entire website is very similar to the dozens of Islamist websites that I visit. The main theme of these websites is almost always that Muslims are victims of some outside force. They use images of dead women and children to reinforce this, always blaming the outsider for their predicament. This “news” website is no different.

I believe that sound you hear in the distance is the rumbling of an advancing avalanche.
Allah;

I can honestly say, in my two-plus years of blogging, this was the first time I’ve been inundated with tips on a particular topic faster than I could post them. Amazing.

For our readers in the media – I would like to direct you to an important detail you may have overlooked.
The vast majority of these questioned images have not been uncovered by “bloggers”. We’re only cataloging and distributing them. The real footwork is being done by our readers – more specifically, the average media consumer.
This is not good news for your industry.

The New York Times runs out of colour film.

(Original before/after shots at the link)
Nice catch by Ken Braithwaite at Incorrections!
Update Sean McCormick has digitally restored the colour for comparison purposes..

You can listen live here or go to the audio vault later. He has Stephen Taylor on as a guest.
Previous – Christina Lawand of the CBC busted for manipulating PM Stephen Harper’s words.

Rusty Shackleford has widened the hunt;

Another photo by Reuters reporter Hajj has been DEFINITEVELY debunked.
What is a passed as a photo showing an Israeli bombing raid against a “village” is actually of an F-16 taking defensive measures.

Be sure to read the whole thing – there’s lots more. Haji has now been fired.
… bonus – Michelle Malkin has captured the Reuters Photo Kill Advisory on yesterday’s “enhanced smoke” example.
And more here on how this incident relates to the Qana coverage.
Update – Ladies and gentlement, we have ourselves another Reuters picture kill.

Stephen Taylor has caught CBC reporter Christina Lawand playing fast and loose with context in a transparent attempt to damage PM Harper. Stephen has exposed her segment for the blatant misrepresentation that it is – by simply providing the full question and answer session her “soundbites” were extracted from.
It’s a video that deserves to be distributed far and wide.

Via Maz2, the Red Cross press release that seems to have been missed by most of the leading media outlets. It’s dated 30 July, 2006;

In today’s military operations by the Israel Defense Forces against the village of Qana, a building sheltering civilians was directly hit. At the time of writing, the Lebanese Red Cross Society and the Lebanese Civil Defense have extracted 28 bodies from the rubble, 19 of whom are children..

The Red Cross is no friend of the Israeli State. If they can’t find more than 28 bodies, (and western media has seen no more than 12) why does the CBC (among others) continue to report the number as 54?

Last Updated Thu, 03 Aug 2006 08:08:57 EDT
CBC News
Israel said Thursday that its bombing of the Lebanese village of Qana, in which 54 civilians died, was a mistake and that its attack guidelines would be evaluated and updated as a result.

But then, the CBC is no friend of Israel, either.
Or, maybe they’ve decided to stay on Hezbollah’s “good side”…

HEZBOLLAH THREATENS JOURNALISTS: Christopher Allbritton, reporting from Lebanon, says “To the south, along the curve of the coast, Hizbullah is launching Katyushas, but I’m loathe to say too much about them. The Party of God has a copy of every journalist’s passport, and they’ve already hassled a number of us and threatened one.”.

The Black Rod has the transcript;

Adler: Now, some people say that it, it’d be okay if they could pay the money back. I don’t know if there’s much of a history of, uh, Canada charging refugees, uhh, for evacuations. Uh, but is there any feeling at all, um, as far as you know, as far as the news conferences that you’ve been going to, the journalism you’ve been doing, is there any feeling at all on the part of any government officials to charge people for the evacuations, to help defray the cost of it ?
Dobrota: Well, so far, I mean it’s hard to answer that question. Um. Obviously the journalists were there yesterday. We would have liked to ask Mr. Harper a follow up question. Uh. But as you know, uhh, many of us refuse to put our name, uh, names on a list and so therefore, you know, he would not, uh, we tried to, to ask him, to put that point to him but, you know, he, you know, we tried to ask him questions after the question period but he wouldn’t let us. So obviously that’s something that we would like to, to clarify, as well.
Adler: This has to do with the ongoing conflict between the journalists and the government. Uh, do you think. and I guess I’m putting you on the spot here, but, do you think that, uh, I realize there’s a conflict between the national press media and, and the government, uh, because the government wants to do things a little differently than the previous government did, and find out who wants to ask questions first and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I don’t want to get into a lot of inside baseball, but…
Dobrota: Right
Adler: …do you think at a time like this it might be a good time to have a ceasefire between the people in the national press gallery and the Government. I mean you can, you can have your point. It can be as principled as you want it to be. But can’t you go back to that after this conflict is over?
Dobrota: Well, you know, I wouldn’t venture to, to speak for my colleagues, um, but I think what’s interesting to, to know here is that as much as, as his policy can, can hinder, um, our job, or my job, where I couldn’t, you know, I would have liked to ask him a follow-up question on his comments, if they, I didn’t have a chance to do that. I think that as much as it can, you know, it can hurt me, I think it can hurt, you know, in a way, him as well, because he doesn’t have a chance to clarify. And so, you know, he gives us a quote and we run with it and then, you know, we do a story on it. and you know, I just think that, you know, I think it’s damaging to him as well.
Adler: I just, I just, I, I, I guess what i’m trying to say is that these events are larger than either of you, and would be in the interest of the public, or, wouldn’t you agree that it would be in the interst of the public to drop the Press-Government conflict for now?
Dobrota: Well, as I said, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t, you know, I could hardly answer that. I wouldn’t want to speak for, for all my colleagues. I think it’s a larger issue than myself included.

Well, actually, Dobrota – no it isn’t. In fact, it really is all about you.
More of the transcript at the Black Rod link.

…me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me *
The saga continues…
Latest developments: Charles Adler is in the middle of an interview about the situation in Lebanon when the report is interrupted by breaking news on the crisis in the Parliamentary Press Gallery … Go to July 26th, 3:34pm at the audio vault. (timestamp corrected)

A member of the mainstream media tells us what he really thinks;

It’s all ideology with this crowd. All they care about is ideology. The President bought it, hook, line and sinker. He had it…it was just put into his head sometime after 9/11, and this philosophy is what was given him. He didn’t have any philosophy when he went in, and they handed it to him, these guys with…you know, the guys you used to make fun of at school, pencilnecks, the intellectuals, the guys you never trusted. All of a sudden, he trusted the intellectuals, the guys he knew at school. They’re a bunch of pencilnecks, and now he buys completely their ideology, because he didn’t have one of his own coming in. That was his problem.

An interview that reads like a garden variety troll comment. (Video at the link).

USAToday: All the news that’s fit to cleanse.

A status report on the Ongoing Journalistic Jihad Against Prime Minister Stephen Harper;

Actually, we pretty much collapsed like a house of cards.
I am also unhappy to report that public reaction to our announced boycott of the Prime Minister’s press conferences has not been exceedingly positive. Typical of the many emails our office has received was this one: “Who do you navel-gazing, pasty-faced twits think you are?” And that was from my wife.

Related: Andrew Coyne.

“Nuance” was much on the minds of the travelling press accompanying Mr. Harper to the G8 summit in Russia, apparently in the belief that their own appalling mistreatment might be taken as a metaphor for his dealings with the whole world. “Harper’s seeming lack of nuance, empathy and people skills are making his week-long diplomatic foray … an excruciating exercise,” Canadian Press reporter Bruce Cheadle filed from the summit. “Throughout the trip, Harper has distanced himself from reporters. Since leaving Ottawa last Wednesday, he has spoken to media travelling with him only three times, including a brief encounter on the plane.”

As these tantrums of narcissism continue among members of the Canadian press, I’m reminded of a scene in the animated movie “Finding Nemo”, (albeit with a slight modification in dialogue);

…me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me …
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Cheap shot comments regarding any purported physical resemblance between these animated seagull characters and CTV’s Craig Oliver will not be tolerated on this thread.)

A letter to the Globe and Mail;

Dear Mr. Greenspon,
The Globe and Mail’s front-page story suggesting that the Prime Minister’s Office – or his Director of Communications – in any way hampered the efforts of the evacuation of Canadians in Lebanon is absolutely and patently false.
What is particularly unfortunate about your story is that such a statement could make it to the front page of your paper, supported by only unnamed “federal sources” and no effort whatsoever to contact the Prime Minister’s Office to verify the accuracy of the claim. If you have a source that made such a false statement, I want to assure you via this letter that it is completely and absolutely untrue. I would also hope that, the next time the Globe and Mail suggests that the Prime Minister’s Office was complicit in putting Canadians in harm’s way, you would demonstrate the journalistic integrity to name your source and allow this office to comment on the record for the story.
The Prime Minister – and his office – has done everything possible to expedite evacuation efforts and has been receiving hourly updates on the status of operations. The Prime Minister’s Office has supported Government officials to leverage every contact and every resource to expedite the evacuation of Canadians from Lebanon. The Prime Minister’s Office has encouraged Government officials to be as forthcoming and timely with information as possible, while respecting the security protocols required for evacuation planning. The Prime Minister is fully committed to the evacuation of all who choose to leave Lebanon and to ensuring their immediate security and safety.
Given the severity of the current situation and operations in the Middle East, I would strongly encourage you as the Editor in Chief of the Globe and Mail to not allow uninformed and false sniping from the shadows of anonymity. I strongly believe that such serious allegations require sources that are prepared to go on the record – and stand by their statements in the light of day. It is profoundly disturbing and disappointing that an institution such as the Globe and Mail would allow such a story to be printed without either naming its source or allowing the Prime Minister’s Office to comment.
The very serious allegations you printed are completely untrue and without merit. I sincerely hope in the future that the Globe and Mail takes its responsibilities to Canadians – and the truth – far more seriously than you have today.
In the interests of correcting your false and misleading story today, I am making this letter public via other members of Canada’s media.
Sincerely,
Peter G. MacKay
Minister of Foreign Affairs

Mr. Greenspon’s email address is egreenspon@globeandmail.ca .

Reader “TomR” writes in the comments about something I’ve also noticed – the similarity of tone in Canadian media coverage of the evacuation from Lebanon with the (now largely discredited) reporting from New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina;

Canada’s media has seized on to Harper’s “Katrina” and isn’t going to let it go. No matter what is done for Canadians in Lebanon, it will not be enough. Just think back to Katrina last year and you hear the same things coming from the ingrates that the MSM finds: relief wasn’t fast enough, why weren’t they prepared for this, it’s so disorganized, there’s not enough food & water, it’s too hot, they’re treating us like animals, etc. No-one to be found that is grateful for being rescued and few questions about how thousands of people came to be in the predicament to begin with.

Except, I don’t think it’s working. And that’s not a perception coming from callers to talk radio – read some of the responses at Al-Jazeera North; (link fixed)

Who are these people? First, they complain that the government doesn’t have a complete flotilla standing by on 24 hours notice to evacuate them from any place in the world. Then, when the flotilla does show up, they complain that it wasn`t first class.
Someone ought to tell them to stop the whining and the CBC ought to stop giving credence to this nonsense.

I do believe that the pursuit of this particular agenda by a tone-deaf Liberal media is about to result in no small degree of blowback. And consider that these are the comments that were allowed through the editorial filter of the CBC. I can’t begin to imagine what was rejected.

Yes, do feel silly.

Another Canadian soldier speaks out on “dishonouring the memory of Corporal Anthony Boneca” by Canadian media.

What is missing from these headlines and statements is context, readily available by making only a few phone calls, a bit of research at the file library, or a bit of thinking. Any journalist worthy of the title would have discovered that all service members, both Regular and Reserve, are volunteers. The same journalist would discover that Reserve soldiers additionally volunteer to go on a specific tour, and join their fellows in the task force for a six-month period of intensive training covering all aspects of the mission from fighting in narrow alleyways to administering first aid.
Journalists and editors would discover, through looking at files and public records that Canadian troops have been participating in combat operations in Afghanistan since 2002. They would have discovered, looking at those files and the public record, that the military chain of command, from the Governor General (the Commander in Chief) down to the Sergeants and Master Corporals, have constantly stressed the difficulty and potential dangers of the mission since 2002. Several Prime Ministers and Ministers of Defence have also repeatedly stated the difficulties and dangers that our troops may face in theatre to both the serving members and the public at large.
The Ottawa Sun recently reported in their article entitled AWOL Canucks have doubled, by Kathleen Harris, that the CF has experienced an increase in “Absent Without Authority” charges, and that the increase was indicative of wider morale problems within the military. The media’s “analysis” of the absent without authority statistics included a typically ill-informed and inaccurate comment from Steven Staples of the Polaris Institute. Mr. Staple’s agenda should be obvious to anyone who had taken a moment to research the aims of the institute for which he speaks. The aim of Mr. Staples and the organizations he represents is the effective disarmament of Canada by transforming the Canadian Armed Forces into something it has never been – a lightly equipped all peacekeeping force. Such a force would have no realistic means to assert the necessary practical aspects of an independent Canadian foreign policy in a world of increasing violence brought on in large measure by a hyper-escalation in religious extremism in the Middle East and Asia.The Polaris Institute aligns itself with a left-wing social policy and is an activist organization with virtually no credentials in the realm of defence policy. It is really just yet another “peace” group, yet not surprisingly it is dutifully sought out and quoted by an equally ill-informed and activist press.

Emphasis mine.
Over at the Corner, an amusing example of the exalted opinion some in the press have of themselves.

We have put journalism on such a pedastal in this country that many media people have forgotten that it doesn’t take a degree in rocket science to perform their jobs. You get a notebook. You observe public events. You write. It’s not child’s play, but it ain’t brain surgery, either. The Nation gets around to summarizing the Yearly Kos convention in Vegas, and what it means for left-wing media critics. Matt Bai of the New York Times Magazine (and formerly of Newsweek) quickly compared journalists to intensely specialized professionals, like…brain surgeons.

It’s more accurate to compare Journalism to a rather different “skilled” profession – that of screen acting. You know, that industry in which a ten year old can receive a leading role through nepotism and be rewarded with the Academy’s highest honours.
Not infrequently, bloggers find ourselves accused of “professional envy”, the theory being that having failed to attain our secret ambitions of becoming “real” journalists (or too insecure about our writing abilities to try), we tap away at our little “online diaries”, hoping against hope that someone important will notice and offer that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (and drop in pay) to join the rarified company of “the mainstream” media.
In remarking on the number of published articles I’ve written over the years covering various aspects of the multi-billion dollar industry of dog breeding and sport, I once looked at the question from the perspective of “trading places”;

How does that happen? I mean, in what other skilled profession do you find so many successful untrained amateurs moving in so effortlessly?
Consider how well you’d function in my profession, for example. How many professional journalists could walk into a bodyshop, untrained and unguided, and roll out a tour bus with three sides of custom graphics and signage 16 hours later, like I do? How would they do in any other skilled trade – carpentry, welding?
There’s insecurity about writing credentials in play, all right. But it’s not on our end. I think the thing that threatens mainstream journalists and columnists so much is the realization that there are so many, many ordinary people out there, doing exactly what they do, better than they do it, – and for free.

Like Strategy Page, Belmont Club, Captains Quarters, and so many more. Or to name just two in Canada, CJunk and The Torch, where for balance, Mark Collins has praise for The Globe & Mail’s Christie Blatchford.

Contrary to popular misconception, bloggers aren’t eating into the market share of big media.

We’re filling a vacuum.
(Now, what was it you were saying again, Tony?)
Related bloodletting in Canada;

… To sweeten the deal, CityTV cancelled its evening newscasts in Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver and fired 281 people.

Drudge FLASH: “Bob Novak will break his silence tomorrow night in two separate interviews with FOXNEWS CHANNEL, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. Novak will appear on Brit Hume (6pm/et) and Hannity & Colmes (9pm/et)…”

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has informed my attorneys that, after two and one-half years, his investigation of the CIA leak case concerning matters directly relating to me has been concluded. That frees me to reveal my role in the federal inquiry that, at the request of Fitzgerald, I have kept secret… MORE… My primary source has not come forward to identify himself… Bill Harlow, the CIA public information officer who was my CIA source for the column confirming Mrs. Wilson’s identity. I answered questions using the names of Rove, Harlow and my primary source.

New link with the complete Novak statement, at Human Events Online (Currently slow loading, no doubt due to the Drudge traffic surge).
More at OTB;

The general consensus at the moment seems to be that the identity of the “primary source” is former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. This is important because it would suggest that Novak learned of Plame’s identity and employment inadvertently as gossip–as Novak has maintained all along–rather than through some concerted effort by the Bush administration to “out” Plame as retribution for her husband Joe Wilson’s attacks against the administration.