Tim Rutten has a piece in the LA Times on the Fauxtography scandal that is currently afflicting Reuters. The essence of the scandal is that Reuters and other major media organizations in Europe and America have been purchasing and printing "news photos" from Islamic "stringers" that have been deliberately posed and in some instances altered so as to give them an anti-Israeli bias.
He makes four major points:
1) The photos definitely are biased and some of them are altered. The charges from the blogosphere are not in error. What is more, the practice seems to be widespread.
2) The MSM, if it has not tried to bury the story, has not given it the attention it deserves.
3) The right wing bloggers are definitely having too much fun with this. Their conspiratorial explanations are off the mark.
4) The explanation is probably economic -- there is a market for dramatic photos, and especially in Europe, for rabidly anti-Israel materials.
He urges MSM editors to apply stricter standards.
For the most part I think he's probably right. The practice seems to be widespread and has not received as much attention in the MSM as it deserves. And, you don't need to invoke conspiracies to explain much of it. However, he should note that there is a strong anti-war and anti-administration bias in the MSM and rabid anti-Israel perspectives are by no means limited to the European press.
Read his analysis here.
To see what he's talking about go here.
UPDATE:
Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, a substantial number of Democrats still believe that the MSM is biased in favor of Israel.
Read about it here.
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