The Ghost of Snapped Shot

Cool—Greetings again, fellow Michelle Malkin fans! Be sure to click here for the latest updates and dictatorial hilarity!

Who would've thunk it, but many of the pictures released by the Iranian government have now been proven to be complete forgeries. Like this one, for example:



As Arash Kamangir points out, the photographic evidence presented by at least some reports is years old. Suitably Flip commenter Jono points out that there are only three missiles present in the original picture, and now that you mention it, the middle two missiles appear to be clones of each other, with pretty amateurish cloning to create the launch signature of the third from the left.

An Iranian dictatorship... lying? Impossible.

Many thanks to Charles Johnson for pointing this latest fauxtography out. Even though there's a "Curses, Foiled Again!" thrown in because he beat me to it yet again.

Update: Moved all of the irrelevant data below the fold. Here's what really matters:—Agence France-Presse has retracted the image, and has posted this combo illustrating exactly how the image was modified, which I'm very gladly posting here under license:



Digitally altered, indeed. In fact, one could say that this is a photoshop... disaster.

Nothing says it like a Patented LGF Throbbing GIF, no?



The Obama campaign just called. Apparently, they'll be announcing that Obama supports opening a channel of diplomacy with the airbrushed rocket, immediately, so we can "better understand" how our Western understanding of ideas like "Truth" and "Accuracy" have hurt its feelings and caused it immense anger towards America.

;)

Update: In a move that will surprise nobody, we discover the the New York Times is claiming full credit for this discovery. Heh, I'm sure that's ethical, right?

(And sorry for filling up your mailbox, Ace. It's what I do the bestest! ;))

See-Also:

EU Referendum, Pat Dollard, Blackfive, Pirate's Cove, Confederate Yankee, Geenstijl, Ace of Spades, Gateway Pundit, A Blog For All 2, Sweetness & Light, GOP and College, Jihad Watch, CAMERA Snapshots (No relation), Prairie Pundit, What the Crap?, In from the Cold

Older updates:

Nevermind about that middle two missiles claim. Based on this higher-resolution copy from the scene, I can comfortably say that the two missiles are unaltered.



I'm still researching Kamangir's assertions. If this is a replay of footage from a couple of years ago, then why in the heck didn't our vaunted news editors catch that?

Update: The photo debunked by LGF is now called "very questionable" by the Sydney Morning Herald. Sweet! (Thanks to DM for that update!)

Update: My "nevermind" picture above is dated 2006, whereas the photoshopped picture at the top of the screen is dated 2008, so I'd say we're back to having strong evidence that the third missile was added to the shot. Oops!

Update: It can be conclusively shown that the phantom missile was, in fact, a Photoshop disaster. Great sleuthing, Cosmo!

 Tags: fauxtography #Fact-checking

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