The buzz of the blogosphere lately has been the use of altered and staged photos of the war in Lebanon. Little Green Footballs, Michelle Malkin and EU Referendum (a new blog I recently discovered) have been all over this. Just google “Reutersgate” for even more. This kind of scrutiny is long overdue, and I believe that the shudders it is sending through the news outlets is going to be healthy.

“Trust but verify” is a very appropriate attitude to have towards news. I am heartened that the verifying part has become much more possible due to the pajamahadeen. The pressure to be first in news, combined with the dangerous nature of reporting from a war zone controlled by vicious thugs like Hezbollah, has created a situation where news agencies are increasingly relying upon “stringers” to get them photographs and reports. These stringers may get the job done, but it has not been lost on the terrorists that the pressures of world opinion can accomplish more for their cause than any military victory that they can achieve. They will control the news whenever possible.

The old saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” is true, but the thousand words that a picture generates in a person’s mind is going to vary from person to person, depending on their prejudices. In other words, the story written beneath the photo depends on the author. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but words accurately describing the context and facts surrounding a photo are crucial to the correct understanding of the event depicted. Or alternately, they can be a powerful means of distorting the event, if not ethically reported.

One of the iconic photos of the Vietnam war showed a scrawny Vietnamese man kneeling down and being executed by a U.S. commander with a gun to his head. This photo helped turn public opinion against the war. It was used by the left as proof that the U.S. troops were committing atrocities against the poor, defenseless Viet Cong. If there had been even a few dozen words to go along with the photo, it would have been nice to have mentioned that the poor, defenseless Viet Cong being executed had just snuck into a home and murdered an entire family, including the mother and her children.

The reason that a photograph can be misunderstood so easily is that it is by nature a very short slice of time. A long exposure in daylight is still nearly always less than a 10th of a second. You can capture any expression you could ask for in that moment of time. A sneeze can become a cry of pain, or a look of pure rage. A brief smile in greeting at a solemn event can be captured and portrayed as proof of a politicians careless indifference to suffering. A propogandists brief show of faked anguish can be dutifully captured and broadcast worldwide, causing a potent reaction in world opinion. Or a horse can be shown as levitating off the ground.

I recently photographed a Renaissance Faire in Gig Harbor, Washington. One of my captures was the following levitating horse.

It really did levitate. At least for 1/2000th of a second.