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StinkyJournalism Media Picks
Staged Photos-Listing filtered by Topic
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Move Over Balloon Boy, Remember Monster Pig Hoax? : Forced Perspective Photo Tricks on Flickr
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| by Molika Ashford, Stinkyjournalism.org |
October 23, 2009 08:21 am EST
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| STINKYJOURNALISM EXCLUSIVE: This new image is based on a scientific analysis done for StinkyJournalism by retired New York University physicist Dr. Richard Brandt. Brandt's analysis of the perspective geometry in the photo shows that the boy only appears to be directly behind the pig. He was actually about 5.5 feet further away, cuing the optical illusion that the boy is smaller than he is and the pig is huge in the foreground. This image illustrates how the forced perspective technique was used to create the infamous Monster Pig photo. See our Photo Gallery below that shows a collection of forced perspective trick photos from Flickr. (Credit: Robert Slawinski, StinkyJournalism) |
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Before the Colorado "Balloon Boy" hoax, there was the "Monster Pig" publicity stunt, which much like "Balloon Boy" involved the exploitation of a young boy and generated press attention around the world.
The 2007 photo distributed by the Associated Press (AP) featured an 11-year-old Alabama boy hunter holding a large handgun from behind--what only appeared to be--a wild 1051-pound beast. The image turned out to be fake, created...Go to full story
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NY Times Kid Texting Photo: Staged danger?
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| by Rhonda Roland Shearer, StinkyJournalism.org |
July 23, 2009 04:41 am EST
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| Photo District News asks The NY Times about the circumstances of their photo published Sunday showing teens driving dangerously. The Times caption: "At 60 miles per hour on a Missouri highway, a 16-year-old-driver texts with a friend as a seventeen-year-old takes the wheel." |
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"Were we safe? Probably not.... As journalists, we are not here to judge or to direct, but only to observe and tell the story," said New York Times photographer, Dan Gill to Photo District News.
Was Gill speaking about Iraq? No. He was in a car shooting pictures of teenagers who were driving dangerously. But don't worry he says he had permission to photograph the teens from the parents and did not name the teens. Are we to believe that having a New...Go to full story
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Students hoax Paris-Match photojournalism contest with fake images
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| by Rhonda Roland Shearer, StinkyJournalism.org |
July 16, 2009 09:26 am EST
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| The winning photographs in a French photojournalism contest were hoaxes contrived by two students. The photographs were said to show struggling youth. The blog HorseThink published one of the fake images, along with the fake caption: "I have been in conflict with my family since I was 16. Even if I don’t have a scholarship nor parental assistance, I have always fended for myself.
Armin, 23, Master of Sociology." The truth was all the supposedly distressed youths were fellow art students who posed for staged images.
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Chase Jarvis Blog reports that on June 24, "Two French students were awarded the annual Grand Prix du Photoreportage Etudiant last week to honor a photographic story that presented images documenting the precarious lives of students today and the things they must do in order to survive and succeed. The only catch is that the entire story was a fake."
Guillaume Chauvin and Remi Huberr, enrolled as art students at Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs of...Go to full story
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NPPA has specific ethics code for digital photography
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| by Rhonda Roland Shearer, StinkyJournalism.org |
June 04, 2009
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| Look at the two legs under the number 19 in the lower right of the bottom photo. They were removed by the photographer before publication in the Toledo Blade (see upper image). The NPPA uses this 2007 Toledo Blade photo as an clear example of unethical digital alterations. The photographer was fired for doctoring 80 images. |
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The National Press Photographers Assn. (NPAA) has a specific ethics code for digital photography, titled "Digital Manipulation Code of Ethics." The NPPA "Statement of Principle" was first approved, Nov. 1990; later revised in July 1991; and finally incorporated into their bylaws, June 1995.
Digital Manipulation Code of Ethics
"As journalists we believe the guiding principle of our profession is accuracy; therefore,...Go to full story
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CNN's Credibility on Life Support?
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| Video of Dying Boy Appears Staged |
| by Danielle Mastropiero, StinkyJournalism.org |
March 20, 2009
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| FAKE VIDEO FROM GAZA? While much of CNN’s clip of the medical activity is below camera level, the doctor on the right with the dark brown hair who appears to be doing CPR, according the experts, is not in the correct position for doing real chest compressions. |
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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
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Snopes Duped!
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| Urban Legends Web Site Mistakenly Says "World's Tallest Woman" Fake Photo is Real |
| by Danielle Mastropiero, StinkyJournalism.org |
March 06, 2009
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| HOW DID SNOPES MISS THIS FAKE? Look at the circled areas. Snopes didn't notice that this photo is an obvious fake. A bad cut and paste job, for example, left part of a car above the woman's shoulder on the left...that does not continue behind her other shoulder on the right. It's as if a car door is hanging nonsensically in the air. Such Photoshop mistakes are readily identifiable. |
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Snopes is a well-known, and often useful debunking web site. It is described as "The definitive Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation.
StinkyJournalism found that while a Snopes investigation regarding photographs of the "world’s tallest women" successfully debunked claims that the woman was of record-breaking height, they failed to catch that at least one of the photos was...Go to full story
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France 2 Faking It Again:
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| 3rd Time Network is Accused of Anti-Israeli Propaganda |
| by Danielle Elliot, StinkyJournalism.org |
February 17, 2009
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| A France 2 report interviewed a Gaza resident who said there was no food in stores and people were starving. However, the France 2's own footage in its report revealed contrary evidence. Look closely in the screen still image above. The reflection in the refrigerator case shows food was, in fact, well stocked on shelves in other parts of the store. |
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France 2 is again accused of fakery in their coverage of the conflict in the Gaza Strip. In this latest incident, in a report about people starving in Gaza, a reporter interviews a Gaza resident who says, "Apparently, there is nothing, as you can see. There are no natural products for the kids. There is no milk. There is nothing here." The shelves behind them in the shot are completely bare. But the camera crew miscalculated one element of the shot: the reflection in...Go to full story
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"China Tiger" Fauxtographer Spared Prison
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| by Rhonda Roland Shearer, StinkyJournalism.org |
November 24, 2008
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| The police held the poster farmer Zhou used to stage his fake photo. |
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Zhou, a farmer and now famed Chinese Fauxtographer won't be going to jail after all.
Welt Online reported, "Last October, he emerged from the woods in Shaanxi with his claim of a tiger sighting, plus dozens of digital photos. His claim was immediately embraced by officials in Shaanxi, who awarded him 20,000 yuan (about US$2,920) and much praise at a press conference little more than a week later."
Reuters reported, " Zhou,...Go to full story
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Look Mom, No Photoshop !
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| Fun fauxtography tricks you can try at home... Just don't hoax the media |
| by Rhonda Roland Shearer, StinkyJournalism.org |
November 17, 2008
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| Who needs Photoshop? The optical illusion, called "forced perspective," fools the eye and brain into wrongly interpreting objects that are large and far away, as small and near. After a glance, one quickly recognizes that the spray of water that appears to be shooting out of the soda can is actually a water fountain in the distance that was aligned just right by the photographer. |
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Who knew that optical illusions can be so diverse in the application of the principle called, "forced perspective?" Click here or right on the photograph to go to the 12 images in the Stinky Journalism album that were collected from the Internet by Polish bloggers.
The album includes many clever variations of the theme that exploits the ambiguity of size cues in a two-dimensional image. An ant walking around the edge of the drinking cup is...Go to full story
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G. I. Joe doll was passed off as Hostage in 2005
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| by Rhonda Roland Shearer, StinkyJournalism.org |
October 23, 2008
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| Terrorists threaten to behead soldier who turned out to be a G.I.Joe doll staged to appear as hostage. |
One wonders if the terrorist bought the full accessories for their Baghdad Bob G I. Joe action figure? |
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James Joyner, Outside the Beltway said that when the hostage photograph and threat, first appeared on a website, and soon after, in the press, bloggers thought the soldier was photoshopped. However, Matt Drudge (via Politburo Diktat) quickly discovered it was "G.I. Joe" that was staged by terrorist thugs. "Baghdad Bob" was only a 12 inch tall action figure. Reuters and other mainstream media were punked by insurgents--of all people. They employed an easy optical... Go to full story
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