BBC Syria Coverage Uses Wrong Photo from Wrong Country and Wrong Year
The BBC published the photo above yesterday to illustrate the massacres taking place in Houla, Syria.
Problem is, the photo was taken by Marco di Lauro south of Baghdad in 2003.
Via the Telegraph:
Mr di Lauro, who works for Getty Images picture agency and has been published by newspapers across the US and Europe, said: “I went home at 3am and I opened the BBC page which had a front page story about what happened in Syria and I almost felt off from my chair.
“One of my pictures from Iraq was used by the BBC web site as a front page illustration claiming that those were the bodies of yesterday’s massacre in Syria and that the picture was sent by an activist.
“Instead the picture was taken by me and it’s on my web site, on the feature section regarding a story I did In Iraq during the war called Iraq, the aftermath of Saddam. “What I am really astonished by is that a news organization like the BBC doesn’t check the sources and it’s willing to publish any picture sent it by anyone: activist, citizen journalist or whatever. That’s all.”
He added he was less concerned about an apology or the use of image without consent, adding: “What is amazing it’s that a news organization has a picture proving a massacre that happened yesterday in Syria and instead it’s a picture that was taken in 2003 of a totally different massacre.”
FJP Pro Tip: a reverse image search could have flagged this photo in seconds. Where to do it? We use Google Image Search (instead of typing a search term in the text box select the camera icon which allows you to either enter the URL of an image or upload one) and Tineye (the process is the same).
Image: An Iraqi girl jumps over body bags containing skeletons found in the desert south of Baghdad. Marco di Lauro, 2003.
good tips
a very relatable short essay about the uniqueness of memory
![millionsmillions:
#LitBeat: Literary Death Match LA
by Melissa Chadburn
“Buy books so the world will be a better place and everyone can be smart and rich and have sex in more comfortable ways,” Todd Zuniga. This is one of the joys of Literary Death Match. Zuniga has found a way to expose people to literary journals, and taken something that we love to do as a solitary act into an arena of mayhem.
Literary Death Match brings together four authors to read before a panel of three all-star judges. After each pair of readers, the judges take turns spouting hilarious, off-the-wall commentary — in the categories of literary merit, performance and intangibles —then select their favorite to advance to the finals. The two finalists compete in the LDM finale, which mixes in the show’s literary sensibility for an absurd and comical climax to determine who takes home LDM gold.
There was an extra twist in the Los Angeles April 20th LDM; it was the ‘Made for TV version’ meaning it was cut down in length by half. Each author only read for 3 ½ minutes, and each was acting as battle champion for a lit mag or journal.
In a strange strange coincidence, the first round featured two separate cocaine themed pieces. Tom Bissel, author of Magic Hours and champion for ZYZZYVA, went head-to-head with Rare Bird Lit’s Jerry Stahl, author of Permanent Midnight.
Bissell read first and his piece included the actual scientific breakdown of an illegal substance; 90% laxative 9% amphetamine, and1% cocaine.
Next up, Stahl proceeded to storm through a piece about inserting a cocaine straw into some woman’s “weirdly hot baby smooth ass cheeks.”
The judges, Scott Gimple, Oriana Small (AKA Ashley Blue), and Richard Lange, were impressed. Providing her commentary on Bissell’s piece, Small stated that she really felt the part about the laxatives,and that she wanted to “run into the bathroom right then and there.” Lange stated that if Stahl wrote War and Peace he would’ve read it but that he never wanted to have sex again. They declared Stahl the night’s first finalist.
Round 2 pitted novelist Krys Lee, for Granta, against Lauren Groff, author of Arcadia; [Ed. Note: A Millions staff pick!], representing Slake.
Lee read from Drifting House, about a mother going to work on her child with a saw. “The sound of her breath an underwater sound.” And Groff read about a coxswain doing a mediocre-to-insulting job of deflowering a mild mannered behemoth named Beth. “Sixty beats per minute thrusts.”
When the judges evaluated the second round they had a lot to say. Lee impressed Small with her “spa voice” which Small said was reminiscent, somehow, of soothing Eucalyptus. Groff gave Lange a renewed hope of eventually having sex again. Ultimately the judges decided that Lee would be the night’s second finalist.
The finale involved three volunteers from the crowd to aid the proceedings: two as helpers to the finalists, one to display the names of famous authors written in Cyrillic. The finalists shouted out their best guesses. It was Lee who clinched the victory and won the Literary Death Match crown. When asked how she felt to be crowned the winner Lee stated, “I intended to lose. This is a nice surprise.”
[Photo via Literary Death Match]
I want to go to one!](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2xtoj1aJw1r6xvfko1_1280.jpg)
