Monday, 2 May 2011

Newspaper websites publish fake bin Laden 'death' pic

The news of the death of Osama bin Laden sent newspaper websites into a frenzy: who could publish a pic of his dead body first?

So we had this from the Mail:


And this from the Sun:


And this from the Mirror:


And this from the Telegraph (image from Terence Eden @edent):

According to the Guardian's Jonathan Haynes, the Times also used the same picture, and Sky News broadcast it too.

But in their rush to publish, none of these organisations seems to have checked the authenticity of the picture.

Alas, it seems this image has been doing the rounds since at least 2009.

And, more importantly, it's a photoshop job (warning: link to real graphic image) - a fake.

At time of writing, each newspaper website has now removed the image.

But why rush to publish without checking it out properly first? Doesn't this event contain enough that is newsworthy already?
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8 comments:

  1. Anonymous2 May 2011 at 12:08

    At least the Mirror have added the text "Disturbing Image" so I can avoid looking at it.

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  2. Anonymous2 May 2011 at 12:18

    You know journalists these days its "pics or it didn't happen"

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  3. Anonymous2 May 2011 at 17:15

    Even if you didn't know it's been knocking around for three years or that the bottom half came from an existing photo of the living Bin Laden, it's such a crude and obvious photoshop you'd think someone would have noticed. If these papers are this crap at spotting fake images I wonder how many others have slipped through over the years.

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  4. Anonymous2 May 2011 at 18:47

    Even if it was real, it's in poor taste to publish it IMO.

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  5. Unknown3 May 2011 at 14:58

    Article in The Mail referencing the Media organizations that made mistake of saying it was Obama & not Osama that had been shot. No mention in the article of paper's that printed a 3 year fake photo though.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1382778/Obama-dead-BBC-said-basic-error-reporting-bin-Ladens-death.html

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  6. Peter4 May 2011 at 00:25

    Just a tad ironic that the Daily Mail are referencing other media organisations that are making mistakes. As if the Daily Mail never make any mistakes whatsoever.

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  7. Anonymous4 May 2011 at 10:22

    As always, if the myth will sell more copies than the truth then go with the myth. Integrity is a virtue expected of other people and organisations.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous4 May 2011 at 12:23

    So how come the newspaper pixelpushers can get a fake photo done in next to no time but it's taking the american's days?

    ReplyDelete

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