Truth is the First Casualty

[skyring]

I don't often get into political subjects, but I'm always interested in tales of media enhancing or distorting images to make for a better story.

Here's a couple of recent examples:

Israeli missiles punch holes clean through centre of Red Cross on Lebanese ambulance!
Staging photographs of destruction.

My opinion is that the devastation is horrific enough without trying to make it more spectacular. Every time something like this is exposed, it takes away from the true horror of war.

Comments

[resqgeek]

Not only does it detract from the true horror of war, it hurts the credibility of the media in general. It just pours fuel on the fires of those who believe that the media is biased, which reduces the effectiveness of the media to convey information.

[drutt.livejournal.com]

The whole situation's just horrible, so it is.

There are some interesting articles by George Monbiot, which would be worth reading, if you're interested.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1834555,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1839282,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1844694,00.html

[thebiblioholic.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Not always easy to sort out the truth though: http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2006/08/id_advise_the_b.html

[skyring.livejournal.com]

Yeah, some of the claims of debunking didn't hold water. Clearly the van wasn't struck by a missile directly through the centre of the cross. To my mind, it looks like there was an explosion nearby, generating a lot of shrapnel, ripping the vent off and generally tearing away at glass and fragile fittings.

But some of the other logic was very dodgy, and I'd want some more evidence before coming to conclusions.