snapped shot - Fact-checking

McCain for Burma's Junta??

nospam@example.com (captainfish) — Tue, 13 May 2008 22:47:11 -0500

It would seem that as Obama has a problem with campaign workers lobbying for money to Hamas, McCain also has problems in his nest. From NewsWeek comes this tidbit...

the man chosen by John McCain's presidential campaign to run this summer's GOP convention--Arizonan Doug Goodyear--was causing some headaches within the ranks. The problem? Goodyear is CEO of DCI Group,... DCI was paid $348,000 in 2002 to represent Burma's military junta, leading "a PR campaign to burnish the junta's image, drafting releases praising Burma's efforts to curb the drug trade and denouncing 'falsehoods' by the Bush administration that the regime engaged in rape and other abuses."

So, how does one defend oneself from accusations that you defended the reprehensible?

Ironically enough, though, Goodyear defended his involvement with the brutal Burmese regime in Isikoff's original story. "It was our only foreign representation, it was for a short tenure, and it was six years ago,"

It was such a long time ago. Let by-gones by by-gones. No sense to dredge up old history that people just as soon want to forget. People change, right?

Wow, glad that is over. Whew. Ooops.. What, there is another one? Read on my friends...
Continue reading "McCain for Burma's Junta??"

Is This "Good Enough?"

nospam@example.com (Brian C. Ledbetter) — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:52:00 -0500

Here's one of those stories that's just good enough for the nightly news tabloids. A Palestinian who was waiting for medical treatment had reportedly died, and the blame was quickly laid at the feet of the "heartless" Zionist "blockade" of the Gaza Strip. Here's how it was covered by Ynet at the time, for example:

A Palestinian father of six who was diagnosed with a brain cancer died at Gaza's Shifa Hospital on Wednesday while waiting for an entry permit to Israel, where he was set to undergo brain surgery and receive chemotherapy treatment at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. ... "The Shin Bet is continuing its harmful policy against cancer patients," Yaron said, "we are very concerned for the fate of 12 others who have requested entry to Israel for treatment."

You'd think that with such a bulletproof story, there'd be absolutely zero chance of any sort of problem here, right? After all, the story is about a known cancer patient who local sources "know" has died—And our beloved news-gatherers would definitely have seen to check the facts out for themselves, wouldn't they?

In this case, it would seem that our vaunted fact-checkers have, in fact, not done their homework:

Muhammad al-Harrani, a father of six from Gaza diagnosed with cancer who reportedly died while waiting for a permit to enter Israel, miraculously "came back to life." [Ed.:—Set "Spin Cycle" to high much?] This was not the result of a miracle, but rather, just part of the tactics used by al-Harrani's family in a bid to secure a permit for him.

...

On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, al-Harrani’s story was published. His family reported to the “Physicians for Human Rights” organization that he died. “The sick man could not withstand the wait for the permit,” claimed Ran Yaron, Director of the Occupied Territories Department who blamed the Shin Bet for adopting cruel policies against cancer patients.

However, the next day, the organization discovered that al-Harrani was still alive. Members of group estimated that his brother, who reported the death, “killed” him so he does not report to the questioning session.

“This is a rare case where a family member knowingly provided false information to the organization,” Physicians for Human Rights said. “Usually, the organization receives information from the families and from the hospitals, but in this case the information was received from the family and was not confirmed by the hospital."

Shin Bet issued the only response appropriate in a disturbing case like this:

Meanwhile, the Shin Bet sent the organization an angry response: “We view these harsh accusations on your part with great severity; not even a minimal inquiry into the facts was conducted.” The Shin Bet noted that due to the suspicion of his involvement in terror activities, al-Harrani was indeed called in for a security check, and it was indeed postponed by a week.

For those of you who might have seen this story on your evening news program, don't hold your breath for a correction.

(h/t Alouette)

ABC News Illustrates Excellence

nospam@example.com (Brian C. Ledbetter) — Thu, 01 May 2008 11:11:00 -0500

Whoa... a fauxtographic exposé from my favorite data mining expert? Awesome!

This is off topic, but given that it is about news media and a little about science, I thought I'd squeeze it in. ABC News has an article today, authored by Ashley Phillips, about pollution in American cities. The article is fronted with an image of Pittsburgh (on top of the list of polluted places) in all its smoggy glory. However, the image includes the Three Rivers Stadium. This stadium was demolished early in 2001. So why post an out of date image with this story? Are the images of the other cities somehow incorrect as well? Perhaps the image is doctored to boot.

I'm guessing that 'news' sources of this type have a constant stream of such inaccuracies - more strength to the fifth estate and algorithmic news.

One can only imagine that the ABC News staffer that was responsible for picking a photograph to accompany a story about Pittsburgh's pollution was on a tight deadline, and picked the most polluted-looking of the pictures from their archives. Why did the editorial desk not catch this glaring error? I'll leave that up to reader speculation, because I know I probably wouldn't have caught it.

Great catch, Matthew! We'll make a "fauxtography" expert out of you, yet!

Update: Leave it up to the good folks of Stinky Journalism to get the problem solved, and fast! After a brief call to ABC, Rhonda Shearer managed to get them to completely replace the photo in the story.

Of course, the new photo they selected dates back to 2003, but hey, it's better than it was before! Here's the original caption, for your reference:

The skyline of Pittsburgh is seen through the morning haze from across the Allegeheny River Wednesday, July 2, 2003. While air pollution declined both statewide and nationally from 2000 to 2001, in Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is, it increased by about 20 percent, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

Great job, Rhonda!

A Background in Conspiracyology

nospam@example.com (Brian C. Ledbetter) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 08:21:00 -0500

A handful of people on the liberal side of the blogosphere are in an uproar over the background of this photograph, taken of President Bush and Pope Benedict XVI by Ron Edwards/AP.

What the heck was going on? How did that Confederate flag get there? The South lost the Civil War and that flag is an egregious symbol for African Americans. Can anyone in the Bush administration explain this? No, it is not awesome, Dubya, it's insensitive and wrong.

Fortunately for Kaz, no explanation is necessary at all. If you look very carefully at the picture, you'll notice that the "Confederate" flag pictured has a field of blue below it (right underneath President Bush's hand), and that there's a small portion of red visible in the lower right-hand quarter.

Ring any bells?

No?

Okay, here's another hint: The flag of ~~Illinois~~ Indiana [Ed.: Oof, that hurts the team! Thanks for the correction, Sean M.!] is right next to the Pope. Now, seeing that there's a State flag next to him, what do you suppose the odds are that the flag behind Mr. President is also a State flag.

I'd say the odds are darned good.

Alas, once again we have the pleasure of showing that the whole world is not a conspiracy.

Fair and Balanced

nospam@example.com (Brian C. Ledbetter) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:24:33 -0500

Here's something else to consider:—In the following Reuters caption, I've highlighted Palestinian-sourced claims in terrorist red, and Israeli-sourced claims in Zionist blue. The sources, which were both indicated in the caption, have been underlined.

The resulting balance?

Judge for yourself:

A wounded Palestinian is carried to the hospital after an Israeli tank shells a building near the Nahal Oz terminal in Gaza April 9, 2008. Two Palestinian militants and a civilian were killed by Israeli tank shells that hit a building near the Nahal Oz terminal, Palestinian medics said. The Israeli army said it fired at gunmen. REUTERS/Ismail Zaydah (GAZA)

I suppose I should at least be happy that Reuters bothered to ask the IDF what it was doing. 'Course, they could have always checked those dastardly Forces' useful website.

Apples, Oranges, and Banana Splits

nospam@example.com (Brian C. Ledbetter) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:06:57 -0500

Reuters has issued a very interesting correction to its recent declaration that Muslims now outnumber Catholics worldwide:

We got quite a few e-mails about this one, and the readers were right. We corrected the reference to denominations, which left us comparing apples with oranges, raising the question of whether we should have done the story at all: GBU Editor

Of course, since Reuters had a clear agenda to fit—namely, the enablement of Muslim extremists—one can understand a certain rush to get things in print. One can even understand how pesky little things like "fact" and "context" can manage to get lost within the finer details of the extremely obvious.

But hey, at least they have acknowledged their erroneous haste after the fact. Better late than never.

Just Journalism, Please

nospam@example.com (Brian C. Ledbetter) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 09:42:24 -0500

A new think-tank has been formed to address the constant imbalance in reporting on Israel. I highly recommend adding them to your bookmarks. (h/t CAMERA Snapshots—no relation)