Does the Camera Lie?

I’ve come across two websites that use news photos to tell very different stories. A Tale of Two Cities contrasts photos of anti-war protests in San Francisco with photos of Iraqi citizens kissing US soldiers and celebrating in Baghdad. But “A Tale of Two Photos” shows a wide-angle shot of the site of statue torn down by Iraqis, where it appears the square is nearly empty, surrounded by US tanks. The absence of huge crowds of Iraqis suggests that the statue incident was staged.

But consider this editorial in the NY Times, “The News We Kept to Ourselves“, written by a CNN employee: “I came to know several Iraqi officials well enough that they confided in me that Saddam Hussein was a maniac who had to be removed. One Foreign Ministry officer told me of a colleague who, finding out his brother had been executed by the regime, was forced, as a test of loyalty, to write a letter of congratulations on the act to Saddam Hussein. An aide to Uday once told me why he had no front teeth: henchmen had ripped them out with pliers and told him never to wear dentures, so he would always remember the price to be paid for upsetting his boss. Again, we could not broadcast anything these men said to us.”

It will be a long time before the full truth really emerges.Does the Camera Lie?Literacy Weblog)