A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Lies

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Photography is, at its essence, preserving a moment that has never happened before, and never will happen again. This is particularly undeniable in the realm of photojournalism. And that's why Reuters' publication of Adnan Hajj's altered photos of the Israeli-Lebanese conflict are reprehensible.

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One of the photos in question shows smoke rising from Beirut after an Israeli bombing raid. Lots of smoke. The other depicts an Israeli F-16 firing three missiles at an unspecified target. Very dramatic. They're the sort of photographs that rip at the soul. There's just one small problem--they're not exactly real.

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Hajj, for whatever motive, decided his photo of the bombing aftermath lacked the drama he wanted to convey--the reality of that one moment he had captured wasn't cinematic enough. And a mediocre shot of an Israeli plane firing a defensive flare, even shot through a fast telephoto lens, wasn't very provocative, either. He did , therefore, what any mediocre hack photographer would do: he photoshop'd the hell out of them and hoped nobody would notice.

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Reuters, at least their global photo editor, Tom Szlukovenyi, didn't notice. More likely, though, the news agency didn't care. After all, Beirut beneath a blanket of thick, oily black smoke depicts the horrors of war much more dramatically than a poorly composed picture that shows only a single bomb blast on the horizon clearly. Perhaps in their arrogance and rush to beat their competitors in ratings and, by extension, ad dollars, Reuters thought nobody would notice.

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But people did notice. Over the weekend, the Internet, particularly political bloggers, made Abnan Hajj something of a Web celebrity. Google him and you'll find a cornucopia of sources that have posted the before and after renditions of the above described items.

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Reuters unceremoniously pulled all 920 of Hajj's photos, most of which were sports shots, from its files Sunday, excluding them from future sales. Szlukovenyi issued a statement typical of those with their hand caught in the cookie jar, absolving themselves of culpability and reiterating the old "zero tolerance policy" saw.

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There is a larger issue that looms here, though, and it is infinitely more important than any short-sighted, self-serving political agendas, be it from a photographer who may or may not be sympathetic to Hezbollah, or pro-Israeli websites or news agencies slanting stories to either the left or the right. The issue here revolves around trust and responsibility--all else is superfluous.

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It's impossible to not slant the news--to say it's 35 degrees outside is fact--to say it's very cold is slanting that fact. That being said, it's ludicrous to refer to news outlets as "the liberal media." The media is what it is, and it's composed of a multitude of viewpoints, some vehement and some conciliatory, all beholden to who's buttering their bread.

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The Hajj affair goes beyond the pale in its sensationalism of what is already a situation of potentially apocalyptic proportions. In times like these, it is not only incumbent upon journalists to accurately inform the public, it is essential to maintaining the Fourth Estate's credibility. Altered photos do not tell the truth--they only give credence to conspiracy theories.

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A picture is indeed worth a thousand words--or a thousand lies. The realities of war speak eloquently of horror and tragedy without embellishing them through photo manipulation.

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