Fake Photos Update

This past weekend the blogosphere was erupting with news of faked photos that had been accepted and published by al-Reuters. First there was one, then two, and now Reuters has pulled all 920 photos from the suspect photographer:

Reuters withdrew all 920 photographs by a freelance Lebanese photographer from its database on Monday after an urgent review of his work showed he had altered two images from the conflict between Israel and the armed group Hizbollah.

Global Picture Editor Tom Szlukovenyi called the measure precautionary but said the fact that two of the images by photographer Adnan Hajj had been manipulated undermined trust in his entire body of work.

"There is no graver breach of Reuters standards for our photographers than the deliberate manipulation of an image," Szlukovenyi said in a statement.

"Reuters has zero tolerance for any doctoring of pictures and constantly reminds its photographers, both staff and freelance, of this strict and unalterable policy."

If you look around enough, you'll find lots of sites with questionable photos. Some have clearly been staged to fit the caption, and others just don't pass the smell test. With the editing abilities available these days, photos which just too clearly seem to fit a political agenda should be suspect. Of course they're not all faked, but you have to wonder if the source seems to have a political connection to once side of the conflict.