Reply #132: In a way, I'd really rather not express any opinion: the noise machine ..

[struggle4progress]

.. typically attempts to interpret small bits of information in the most inflammatory manner possible, thus encouraging the substitution of accusation for fact; thus, underlying realities tend to vanish under a raucous cloud of claim and counterclaim. In the case at hand, nobody has produced any credible link to a Reuters statement, and I've been unable to locate such a statement.

There is some evidence of a doctored photo, which Reuters may actually have posted: I don't know for sure anything about the provenance of that photo, although the comments above by you and others reflect my own current view, that the photographer in question typically has done good work, and there seems to be no reason for him to submit a shopped job.

It's not impossible that the photographer did such a thing: talented people with some regularity engage in unprofessional conduct. But blatant image falsification by a field photographer seems unlikely: such a person, after all, needs to justify to self the risk to life and limb, and a common justification is that one bears real witness by producing truthful images of record; moreover, the large amounts of time required to negotiate daily life in a warzone restrict the time available for goofing around with some silly photoshopping. My own guess would be that if Reuters did post a photoshopped image, the guilty party is likely to be somebody on the layout team, sitting in a comfy office somewhere, trying to construct a visually striking page before deadline: such a person typically works with a variety of images which are commonly subject to aesthetic improvements.

The story so far does exhibit definite "noise machine" features, most notably the attempt to change the subject to allegations that photos involving dead children in Qana were "staged" -- yet another invitation to a loud bout of claim and counterclaim, which obscures the actual dead bodies under some ill-defined "controversy" regarding the "credibility" of the photographer.