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StinkyJournalism Media Picks
Bad Captions-Listing filtered by Topic
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NY Daily News Uses Stock Photo Child to Represent Psychotic, Obese Children Everywhere
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| by Molika Ashford, Stinkyjournalism.org |
November 02, 2009 07:43 am EST
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| The New York Daily News uses this stock photo of a shirtless boy (with no known mental disorders) to illustrate a story about children gaining weight on anti-psychotic drugs. |
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First the New York Daily News used a photograph of trash at the Bronx’s Hunts Point Market to illustrate a Florida woman’s death. Now an unidentified redhead has become their poster-boy for an article about overweight, psychotic children.
The boy in this Getty image stock photo is identified on the Getty website only as “Boy in pool locker room.” Unable to contact the boy himself, a parent, or the photographer, StinkyJournalism can conclude only...Go to full story
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Blogger Calls Vietnamese Police Photo A Fake: Stinkyjournalism Investigates
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| by Molika Ashford, stinkyjournalism.org |
October 18, 2009 06:38 am EST
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| IS IT A FAKE PHOTO? The timestamp on this photo, from a story in the Vietnamese paper Dantri.com says 9/10/2009. But the photo's metadata marks that the image was originally created in 2005. |
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On October 9, on freerepublic.com, Vietnamese blogger DieuVan Nguyen argued that a news photo implicating two Vietnamese journalists was a fake: Nguyen reports that Dantri.com, a Vietnamese online paper, had published a story about two journalists arrested for assault.
The accompanying photo of an injured man features a timestamp dated 9/10/2009 (October 9, 2009—dates are traditionally written day/month/year in most countries, including Vietnam). But,...Go to full story
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NY Daily News Uses Bronx Trash To Illustrate Florida Women's Death
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| by Molika Ashford, stinkyjournalism.org |
October 16, 2009 1:43 pm EST
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| This New York Daily News photo misleads readers into thinking the trash at Hunts Point produce market in the Bronx is the 8-foot-tall pile of garbage found inside a deceased Florida woman's house. |
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What a pile of garbage.
“Woman found dead under 8 feet of trash in Florida home,” reads an October 8th, New York Daily News story. Under the headline a towering mound of trash looms in an image readers would probably assume is the refuse mentioned in this tale of an elderly woman’s death.
But if you read closely, the caption of the photo reveals that the image is not of the Florida woman’s trash at all, but rather “A heaping...Go to full story
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Don't Send Me Fake Weather Photos says Meteorologist
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| by Rhonda Roland Shearer, StinkyJournalism.org |
July 14, 2009 08:29 am EST
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| Chief Meteorologist for WHNT NEWS 19, Dan Satterfield captioned the above fake image, which often has been sent to him by email, as being from "Hurricane this or that,": "This is not Hurricane XXXXXXX. It's a shelf cloud ahead of a thunderstorm. I bet it was taken on the Great Lakes." The TV station has posted a whole gallery of these weather photo fakes for readers to peruse. |
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Mainstream media's new dependence on content from citizens opens new problems. Determining authenticity of weather photos is now part of a new job description for meteorologists, according to the blog Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.
Chief Meteorologist for WHNT NEWS 19 in Huntsville, Alabama, Dan Satterfield, writes: "I get hundreds of emails a week/sometimes each day. I try to answer as many as I can, but I and hundreds of my fellow...Go to full story
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Doctored Image Wins Thai News Photo Contest
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| by Rhonda Roland Shearer, StinkyJournalism.org |
June 24, 2009
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| When the award winning news photo (see image, upper left) and a screen capture from the original video are compared, one quickly sees that Photoshop was used to remove the video camera equipment behind the man in green. See red arrows from the analysis found on Prachatai's Web site. They also provide information about the fake caption that originally accompanied the photo's publication on the front page of the Thai newspaper, Thai Rath. Other details include information about the Thai politics involved that would motivate such photo fakery. |
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Prachatai reports, "A former PAD [People Alliance for Democracy] guard grabbing the hair of a red-shirt woman and dragging her along the road during the military crackdown in April has won the Best Photo of the Year Award from the Mass Media Photographers Association of Thailand (MPA)."
On June 14, MPA announced that "35 prizes of about 700,000 baht", Thai currency (about $30,000), was awarded to winners chosen from among a total of 600 photos...Go to full story
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BBC Botches Iranian Rally Caption: Large Crowd Photo of Supporters Mislabeled Protesters
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| by Rhonda Roland Shearer, StinkyJournalism.org |
June 23, 2009
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| BBC editors admit they mistakenly captioned a Getty photo of a pro-Ahmadinejad rally as pro-Mousavi. A blog, WhatReallyHappened, is indirectly acknowledged by BBC, as the one who first reported the error. |
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BBC editors write, June 19, that they made a caption error two days before--that bloomed into controversy and accusations of biased coverage by bloggers who discovered the error.
BBC explains, "We made a mistake in a picture caption published on BBC News online. In the story Obama refuses to 'meddle' in Iran, we mistakenly stated that a Getty agency picture of a pro-Ahmadinejad rally was a pro-Mousavi rally."
BBC indirecly acknowledges...Go to full story
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TIME Mag's 'Tilt Shift ' photography continues to embody editorial bias
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| by Rhonda Roland Shearer, StinkyJournalism.org |
June 17, 2009
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| GOP DOLL HOUSE OR REAL ROOM? The May 18th issue of TIME Magazine examines the decline of the Republican party. The caption states, "Hallowed Hall: A room at the Republican National Committee is a shrine to the GOP's glory days--an increasingly distant memory." What the caption does not say is mysterious reason why the GOP podium looks toy-like and insignificant. It's a special effect, called tilt-shift photography. TIME editors used this technique to illustrate their point that the GOP may be disappearing. However, such an interpretive illustration that distorts size should be distinguished from photojournalism in StinkyJournalism's view. We believe the caption should have disclosed the tilt-shift effect or used the word "illustration" to inform readers. NOTE: The above photo and caption are from TIME's May 18th print version.(Brooke Kraft, TIME/Corbis) |
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Titled, "Endangered Species," TIME magazine's May 18th issue centered on the possible downfall of the Republican party. A two-page spread in the main story features a photo of a GOP room with a toy-like podium. The caption in the print issue says, "Hallowed Hall: A room at the Republican National Committee is a shrine to the GOP's glory days--an increasingly distant memory."
Those unfamiliar with tilt-shift photography will not realize that the...Go to full story
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Wrong Papua New Guinea photo--again:
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| PACNEWS should know better than stereotype PNG citizens |
| by Rhonda Roland Shearer, StinkyJournalism.org |
June 13, 2009
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| PACNEWS, the Pacific Island New Association's online publication erred in multiple ways when they ran an image of West Papua warriors to depict two Papua New Guineans and their libel lawsuit against The New Yorker and scientist and famed author, Jared Diamond. |
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The headline, "PNG tribesman sues New Yorker magazine" features an article and image about Papua New Guinea tribesmen, Hep Daniel Wemp's and Henep Isum Mandingo's libel lawsuit against The New Yorker magazine and famed author and scientist Jared Diamond. Read more here.
Since it's PACNEWS, the Pacific Island News Association's online publication, you would think they, of all media outlets, would care about getting the information about two Papua New...Go to full story
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TIME Mag's Tilt-Shift Special Effects Photos: Gimmick? Fakery? or Legit News Images?
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| by Rhonda Roland Shearer, StinkyJournalism.org |
May 29, 2009
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| The May 25, 2009 issue of TIME magazine included the above "tilt-shift" special effects photograph by Corbis photographer, Brooks Kraft. StinkyJournalism asks: Since the public is so sensitive now about the use of photo deceptions in news photography, such as staging and Photoshop, shouldn't TIME magazine disclose the use of special effects, such as tilt-shift, as "photo illustrations" since it is simply not a matter of replicating human vision, or pointing and shooting a camera? After all, throughout the Internet, tilt-shift photography is called "faking" by those who advocate its use. |
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The photo of Obama speaking to Congress in TIME magazine looks strange [May 25, 2009, print only].
Obama appears toy-like and small surrounded by out-of scale larger congress members in a blurry circular haze --as if the viewer suffers tunnel vision. The article's headline was "What is Obama's Biggest Problem?" Congress was indeed looking large while Obama looked small. There is no caption that discloses "photo illustration" or special effects....Go to full story
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The UK Times' deceptive editorializing through photo selection:
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| Was Obama really sweating over issues or just a hot day? |
| by Rhonda Roland Shearer, StinkyJournalism.org |
May 27, 2009
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| "Never let them see you sweat"--so the saying goes. Is that why the Times selected a photo of Obama sweating? Was the photo depicting realty (Obama's worried moment at a press conference) or was the air conditioning broken? The UK Times does not say. The image of Obama mopping his brow may, in fact, have been taken in a 90 F degree room and have nothing to do with Obama's broken promises. Nonetheless, it is used to illustrate the supposed emotional pressure that Times editors guess, or at least want to communicate to readers, that Obama feels. |
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In early May, the UK Times Online published a tough story about Obama's softening resolve on campaign promises. The opening paragraph states: "President Obama is on the verge of breaking two key campaign promises in his troubled attempt to shut Guantánamo Bay--with plans to revive the military tribunal system set up by George Bush and to continue the indefinite detention of up to 100 inmates."
The tough line is fair. The problem is the photograph...Go to full story
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