The photograph was taken by Mohammed Salem, and the implication is clear: Palestinian power was taken away by the Israelis, thus forcing democracy to resort to drastic measures. The only problem is that the meeting was actually held during the day, and the illusion of nighttime was created by drawing the curtains shut. Sunlight was still visible.
The Jerusalem Post has reported that darkness was staged at least twice in order to exaggerate the effect of the power outages, and that in fact Hamas turned off the power.
There are, of course, complex political issues in and surrounding this issue. Local journalists and photographers often have allegiances to local groups, and as a result some of the coverage (in prose or photography) reflects that bias. But what is Reuters' procedure for checking images and the claims behind them? Especially in a case like this, where the caption clearly doesn't match the circumstances pictured?
Interestingly, this controversy comes on the same day that Robert Capa's Spanish Civil War photographs go to the International Center of Photography, including "The Fallen Soldier," which some feel was staged.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. it's a long leap of faith for anoyone to accept as gospel a story about Palestinians from someone named greenman.the Israeli lobby has moles in every media.
dr.sausage at 6:37PM on Jan 29th 2008
2. Dr Fucko- You take the GOSPEL - Your little fairy tale book, and you run home to your White Power meeting and read it aloud to them....As they are not educated. How much have you done today to further the Palestinian cause ? Oh wait, you are jacking off on the internet to gay porn. Word.
Dr. Sausages Lover at 8:48PM on Jan 29th 2008
3. Doctor - I think you're on to something here. Ben Greenman - Jewish worldwide media conspiracy secret operative. Little did we know. (I should have seen this one coming sooner.)
Dave at 9:02PM on Jan 29th 2008
4. Ben
Really great story.
News Media must make attempts to show the truth, even if it means doing a little work and waiting for the facts to develop before RUSHING TO JUDGEMENT.
The AOL News Blogs writers sometime rush to fast into a story and other times knowingly present a misleading, slanted and false story.
Again, great story, Reuters blew it, Jerusalem Post showed the true story.
ROBERT OKANE at 6:06AM on Jan 30th 2008
5. This is the same kind of picture that PBS and Bill Moyer's tainted reporting loves to hoist on the American public.
Drive-bye Guy at 6:18AM on Jan 30th 2008
6. Wow - Is there any way to lock blogger #2 up in a room for a while with Alec Baldwin, Al Franken and Louis Farrakhan? To describe his post as idiocy is being generous. (Obviously I was speaking tongue-in-cheek in my post.)
Dave at 12:49PM on Jan 30th 2008