MailOnline uses snow photo from 2010 in new article

A MailOnline article (published 4 February, last updated 07:35 today) about the snow includes this photo of York's Stonegate:

How strange that York appears to have Christmas decorations up in early February. They don't, of course. It's just that the MailOnline has included an old photo - one that was taken on 1 December 2010.

YorkMix explained yesterday:

York only had the lightest sprinkling of snow overnight, all of which had gone by mid morning.

The Express was caught out last month using an old snow scene photo and claiming it was new. 

(Hat-tips to YorkMix and Jerry Ibbotson)

The eagle has crash landed

The day after the 'eagle snatches kid' video was revealed as a hoax - the Telegraph published confirmation of this at 8:12pm on Wednesday - several of the tabloids ran the story in their print editions.

The Express headline read 'Terror in the skies as eagle snatches tot':

Although the article admitted a 'fierce online debate was raging' about whether it was a hoax, the paper calls it a 'terrifying incident' in the third sentence.

The Sun's headline was 'Child's prey':

Like the Express, it reports on the fact that 'some' had 'questioned whether the incident...was real or a CGI fake.' But at the top of the story, the Sun says:

Dad's horror as golden eagle swoops on his toddler son in park and tries to carry him away

The Star went with 'The eagle has landed a tot!':

It does include the truth that 'the clip turned out to be a...computer-generated fake' but this appears to be a late addition, as the rest of the story is written as if it is genuine - including, on the right of the page:

'What do you think? Check out the video at www.dailystar.co.uk'

(Pictures from Jonathan Haynes, posted on Twitter)

'Incredible footage'

The top story on the MailOnline homepage this morning:

The update, placed half-way down the MailOnline homepage tonight:

MailOnline publishes another fake photo it found on Twitter

MailOnline reports on looting in the wake of Superstorm Sandy:

The article, written by Adam Shergold and Emily Anne Epstein begins:

Several brazen thugs have robbed their neighbors and their local shops of everything from basic food stuffs to expensive electronics and they are taking to Twitter to broadcast their spoils.

'Check out this laptop I scored,' SevenleafB tweeted earlier today. 'It's easy just reach out an grab it.'

It appears the looters are organizing through the hashtag #SANDYLOOTCREW.

It then publishes one of the tweets in question - the one referred to in the MailOnline headline:

However, if you search Google Images for that photo - which doesn't take long - it pops up in a July 2010 story from California's Oakland Tribune.

Indeed, several of the images used by the 'brazen thugs' on #SANDYLOOTCREW are old - some date from 2005 and 2008.

It seems the folk at MailOnline didn't check out the photo beforehand. As they didn't with a photo posted on Twitter during Hurricane Isaac in August. And as they didn't with a photo posted on Twitter of the 'Essex lion'.

Mail and Sun websites publish fake lion pic

The image of Tropical Storm Isaac (that wasn't) was not the only occasion today when MailOnline published - without checks - a photo it found on Twitter, which it then deleted. 

They also ran this photo in an article on the 'Essex lion':

(apologies for the poor quality screenshot)

The article claimed it had the:

Image that sparked police hunt for big cat in Essex town

and said:

Photo passed around social networking site believed to be lion

The article began:

This is believed to be the first picture of the lion on the loose which has sparked a huge police hunt for the beast.

The image - which has been widely distributed on Twitter - is thought to show the beast behind a car in a residential area in Basildon, Essex.

The Sun also ran the pic, under the headline: 'First photo of lion on loose in Essex':

(apologies for the poor quality screenshot)

Both use the phrase 'lion on the loose' as if that was fact.

But the image used was fake. According to Marcus Edwards from Channel 4 News, the same photoshopped pic did the rounds last year during the riots, when a big cat was said to have escaped from London Zoo. Like the 'Essex lion' story, that was also nonsense.

The most recent MailOnline article now says:

It has emerged that an image believed to show the lion which was widely viewed online was in fact a fake.

Essex police warned that 'several doctored photographs are in circulation through social networking sites and other media forums'.

And officers said one night-time picture in circulation showing the silhouette of what looked like a lion, was 'never one that police were examining'.

The image - which was widely distributed on Twitter - was thought to show the beast behind a car in a residential area in Basildon, Essex.

'Widely distributed on Twitter'. But MailOnline forgets to mention its own, rather prominent use of the 'first picture of the lion on the loose'. 

MailOnline fooled by fake Isaac photo

MailOnline reports on the progress of Tropical Storm/Hurricane Isaac:

The first photo they use to illustrate their article is certainly dramatic. But is it genuine? And is it Isaac?

They have credited it to 'Twitter/Seven_marine'. But that Twitter account has not been updated since March 2011.

A quick search of Google Images finds that photo used on many blogs before Isaac, including this one from August 2010 and this one from 2008.

According to Bay News 9:

the photo has been around for many years and seems to pop up every time a severe weather situation arises.

"It is a Photoshopped picture of a supercell thunderstorm that seems to pop up with a new foreground every time there is a hurricane threat anywhere," Bay News 9 Meteorologist Josh Linker said.

"I've seen versions of that photo since at least 2005," Bay News 9 Meteorologist Brian McClure added.

Yet, according to the caption on 'newspaper website of the year' MailOnline, the photo is:

Ominous: Tropical storm Isaac gathers pace as it barrels towards the Gulf coast, where it is expected to hit by Wednesday - the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina

Journalist Jonathan Haynes says:

Cannot believe how many news websites see something on Twitter and publish it without basic checks on its validity. Utterly depressing. 

(Hat-tip to Jonathan Haynes).

UPDATE: MailOnline updated their article and removed the fake photo at 7.11pm, less than an hour after a link to the above was posted on Twitter. 

Mail fooled by photo of 'ghost' created with iPhone app (again)

The MailOnline reports on a 'ghost sighting' in Gloucestershire:

The article by Graham Smith explains:

A couple claim their house is haunted after capturing what they believe to be an apparition of a baby ghost on camera.

Shocked John Gore, 43, was taking photographs of his pet cats when he noticed the bizarre outline of a small ghostly figure.

The shape - which looks like a toddler or baby - appears to be stand next to an armchair in the living room of the house Mr Gore shares with his girlfriend Sonia Jones in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

The couple have now given the ghost the nickname 'Johnny Junior'.

Neighbours have since told the couple that a baby died from cot death in their home a number of years ago.

Mr Gore and Miss Jones have also noticed the room’s lights turning on and off and the television changing channels on its own in a series of spooky goings-on at the house.

There isn't much scepticism in the report, which is a repackaged version of a Gloucestershire Echo article, which began:

A ghostly figure has been captured on camera in a Cheltenham house.

It has?

Well, no. Yesterday, a follow up report in the Echo revealed it was a fake:

it turns out the image taken at his home...was altered by an application for an iPhone. 

According to some ghost-watching websites (see here and here), the application used to create the picture was GhostCapture (the 'ghost' used is the figure in black on the right-hand side of this image).

If GhostCapture sounds familiar, it's because the Mail (and the Sun) were fooled by an image created using the same app over two years ago.

But will the Mail follow the Echo's lead and now admit it is a fake?

'Much to the amusement of those watching'

A MailOnline story posted yesterday evening claimed:

The article by Simon Tomlinson - which amounts to: person with funny name gets photo shown on TV -  then publishes the picture:

This blog was contacted by an eagle-eyed reader who pointed out that the font doesn't quite look like the one the BBC News Channel uses.

A comment on the MailOnline article makes the same point, and also questions why they would include the 'LIVE' caption while showing photographs from viewers.

Further doubts were raised by other comments. One said:

Strange, I live 12 miles from Lutterworth and we haven't seen so much as a flake of snow all day. Maybe that should read FAKE instead of flake!

Another said:

I live 6 miles away and drove through lutterworth and there was no snow today!

And a third said:

Well I live in Lutterworth and we haven't seen as much as a snowflake during this recent cold snap! Someone was clearly yanking the BBC's leg!!

A comment left this morning sheds more light:

This is a photoshopped picture and a fake name, my friend did it. Can't believe it's made the news with people thinking it's real! Search Phlex Media :)

And, indeed, searching for Phlex Media finds this Facebook page where Jody Kirton is currently telling his followers how his 'photoshopped photo made the news'. And on Twitter:

He explains how he photoshopped the picture, put it on a USB, looked at it on his TV and then took the picture. He has posted a copy of his original photoshopped picture as proof.

He has now also posted another photo on his Facebook. It has the caption: 'Daily Mail 0, Jody 1'.

And this incident comes so soon after this...

(Hat-tip to Martin S)

UPDATE: Craig Silverman from Poynter has interviewed Jody.  

UPDATE (6 February): The article has now been deleted from the Mail's website. 

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?