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Look at this photo and the caption associated with it:
Caption: AFP/Yahoo!News Caption: Tuesday August 14, 2007: An elderly Iraqi woman shows two bullets which she says hit her house following an early coalition forces raid in the predominantly Shiite Baghdad suburb of Sadr City. At least 175 people were slaughtered on Tuesday and more than 200 wounded when four suicide truck bombs targeted people from an ancient religious sect in northern Iraq, officials said.(AFP/Wissam al-Okaili)
The AP ran this story.
Anything jump out at you as strange or out of place?
Yeah, those bullets have never been fired. Maybe someone threw them at her house!
The AP changed the caption with no mention of any actual error on their part, of course:
CORRECTS BULLETS TO UNSPENT An elderly Iraqi woman holds up two unspent bullets at her house following an early coalition forces raid in the predominantly Shiite Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, 14 August 2007.”
Ace points out the dishonesty at work here:
Ummm… that’s not all that was corrected, AFP. The old caption said those bullets hit her house.
Now that you acknowledge they were never fired, of course you admit they could not have hit their house.
Funny how you just omitted that part without actually acknowledging your error there.
Why not just let that caption remain? The woman claimed these obviously-unfired cartridges hit her house. Why protect a liar from being exposed?
Unless, of course, you have a some interest in protecting a liar.
The woman claimed these unfired bullets hit her house. That is what she claimed, and that fact — the fact of her making that claim — remains true, unless the photograher simply made that up.
If the photographer made it up, he should be fired and AFP should admit this.
If he didn’t make it up, then the woman is a proven liar, and the evidence of her stooging for Sadr should remain on the record, rather than being whitewashed away.
Well, it was of course a much better fit to the AP agenda originally — gee, this little old lady had bullets striking her house from coalition forces. See what we’re doing over there? We’re targeting women, children, and little old ladies. We’re so, so evil.
But the blogosphere lit up over the photograph, Hot Air contacted them rather quickly, and they presumably changed the caption to change their own skin.
Or at least, that’s my take on the situation. I’m sure it’s pretty accurate. Either way, it isn’t anything new for the AP to practice fauxtography in their journalism.
Others commenting:
The Autonomist
Michelle Malkin
Hot Air
Blackfive
Q & O
Little Green Footballs
Confederate Yankee
Snapped Shot
Gateway Pundit
IMAO
Don_cos says: This is an example of legitimate journalism under the “fake but accurate” clause of the ist amendmant!
KurtP says: If I was some kind of expert, I’d think at least one of those rounds was photoshopped, since it’s almost a completely differnt color.
arclightzero says: Not only that, but anybody who has ever been in the military or to a gun show that sells military surplus ammunition knows that those are civilian rounds, not military. They are .223 rounds which are common to the M16 and M4, but military rounds are color coded for the purpose. The nice shiny brass ones are for people who go to Walmart… Or Jihadmart.. Or wherever it is they shop for the their daily jihad needs over there.
gredd says: It sure is fun watching the left dance around this one. They’re going to need new shoes!
Lone Star Pundit says: Lone Star Pundit « A Perspective on the Iraq Mission – August 28, 2007
[…] I think the assumption among many Americans is that the troops in Iraq are all out on the streets everyday kicking in doors and conducting combat operations.
Well, that and killing babies and throwing bullets at the homes of innocent civilians. Or at least, that’s what so many in the American and international media keep telling us.
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