Fake Videos

Apparently, October is National Hoax Month -- or so it would seem, given the proliferation of fraudulent stories that appeared over the past couple weeks. It all began with a boy not in a balloon... By now, you've almost certainly heard of Falcon Heene, the 6-year-old boy from Fort Collins, Colorado who, for a brief period of time, was thought to be trapped inside his father's homemade weather balloon. News crews flocked to capture the scene and helicopters from the Colorado...Go to full story

While news about Neda Agha Soltan's tragic death on the streets of Iran evoke global shock and sadness, questions also arise about the authenticity of the video. UK's Sky News posts a second video that seems to support the authenticity of the original video circulating the Internet. The video footage shows a woman and a man, with the same clothing and physical appearance as Neda and her music teacher.  Sky News writes: "Neda Agha Soltan's death was captured on...Go to full story

Stinky Journalism's Danielle Mastropiero is a career EMT as well as a former American Heart Association CPR Instructor.

The claim captured in the title and caption of the video is dramatic: "Cameraman watches brother die: CNN's Michael Holmes reports on the Gaza cameraman who recorded the death of his own brother." When bloggers first raised doubts and suggested the scene was staged, the video was quickly removed by CNN but soon reemerged with the...Go to full story

The Huffington Post has admitted they were fooled by a fake video. Huff Post editors wrote on Feb 19, 2009: "UPDATE: The Huffington Post has learned that the below video has been doctored. We regret the error and apologize to Mr. Gibson. John Gibson never compared Eric Holder to a monkey with a bright blue scrotum. The Huffington Post regrets the error. -- Alex Leo and Danny Shea. " Good to know. The IUSB Vision Weblog was first to chronicle this debacle. The...Go to full story

A France 2 report showed old footage - from 2005, of the dead bodies of children killed by the accidental explosion of a truck carrying Hamas rockets- and tried to pass it off in January 2008 as recent footage illustrating the violence of the Israelis in Gaza, according to French blog, Le Post.

Etienne Leonhardt, France 2's joint director responsible for investigative reports, immediately fell on the sword and said the network would apologize....Go to full story

"I'll never let go. I promise. I'll never let go." Recognize these lines? If you were around in the late 90s, you probably know they come from the blockbuster hit Titanic, starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. The movie is about the fateful voyage of the Titanic. It is not about a Russian exploration of the Arctic Ocean. So why, You Tube user Densloe asks, did scenes from the film appear on the Russian Today’s August 2007 report on a Russian expedition...Go to full story

"One person who certainly didn't know about the CGI mix-in was M. Philip Butler, a vice president at Fireworks by Grucci who calls himself "Chief Operating Brother-in-Law" of the company. (His wife, Donna Grucci, is its president.) Fireworks by Grucci is one of the country's pre-eminent fireworks innovators; the company was hired by the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee to help engineer the presentation.

"Butler says that he was... Go to full story

" We live in a deeply cynical culture," said Alison Hearn, a professor in the faculty of information and media studies at the University of Western Ontario. " [We are] constantly aware that the images and storylines we consume may have been manipulated, Photoshopped or fabricated entirely. But the Olympic opening ceremonies are different, she said, occupying a special place midway between entertainment spectacle and serious news event with political overtones, and

FinalDog writes: "Even the giant television screens within the stadium itself broadcast the fake images. Stunned viewers thought they were watching the string of fireworks filmed from above by a helicopter. But in reality they were watching a 3D graphics sequence that took almost a year to produce. It even included a 'camera shake' to mimic the effect of filming from a helicopter....Go to full story

"The Associated Press and video services operated by CBS and NBC have pulled video allegedly taken of a tornado in Nebraska last weekend after questions were raised about its authenticity. A tornado chaser has claimed that the video was a doctored version of pictures he had taken of a twister that touched down four years ago in Rock,... Go to full story

From the Weekly Standard, L'Affaire Enderlin: Being a French journalist means never having to say you're sorry by Anne-Elisabeth "France 2, dragging its feet, eventually produced 18 minutes of film. (There is practically no such thing as "contempt of court" in such circumstances in the French judicial system.) The showing of this film made for an eerie moment at the trial, when the hitherto blasé judges sat up and started watching with more attention,... Go to full story