Calame’s Perspective
Times Public Editor Calame ignores the impact of “fauxtography,” including this Times photo of a dead man, later seen walking around
New York Times Public Editor Byron Calame has a column yesterday on the paper’s photographic coverage of the Israel-Hezbollah war (“Picturing the Conflict: Perspective Versus ‘Balance'”). Some observations:
1) A public editor is supposed to take an independent stance. When it comes to Lebanon’s casualty figures though, Calumne simply parrots the Times‘ questionable claims about the number of Lebanese civilian casualties.
2) I trust that the editors, those who Calame says “met [the paper’s] obligation to provide a fair and accurate perspective on the fighting and its impact,” know more about the fighting than Calame himself. After all, Calame writes:
One factor [in the higher Lebanese death toll], of course, was that Israel’s population apparently had more access to shelters that offered greater protection from Hezbollah’s bombs.
Israel’s population was threatened by Hezbollah’s missiles, not bombs. An editor for the public editor, anyone?
3) Incredibly, Calame makes absolutely no mention of the “fauxtography” scandal, perpetrated mostly — but not exclusively — by a Reuters photographer. He even links to a Times photo essay which includes a picture of “Green Helmut Guy.” But he makes no comment on GHG’s role as a photo manipulator. Nor does he mention the fact that the Times itself fell victim to a photo hoax, having carried an image of a dead man subsequently seen walking around pointing things out to photographers. (The paper ran a correction Aug. 9.)
While Calame writes extensively about “fairness,” and that the (exaggerated) lopsided deathtoll of civilians was a determining factor of what pictures were fair to run, he has nothing to say about the fairness of just one side manipulating and doctoring photos. He acknowledges that
Times editors responsible for both photography and news articles had those cumulative numbers of the deaths on each side in their minds each day.
They obviously, however, did not have the trustworthiness of each side in their minds each day.
4) To his credit, Calame notes that the Times barely ran any photos of Hezbollah fighters and noted that “Photographers were actively discouraged from taking pictures of them.”
5) Mediacrity also takes a dig at Calame’s column.
More from SNAPSHOTS
Double Standards: Boycotts and Discrimination in MassLive
May 16, 2025
Anti-Israel activists, including Harvard University’s Lara Jirmanus, a clinical instructor, seem to struggle with the concept of “discrimination.” Quoted in a May 14 MassLive article, “Harvard ‘failed to respond’ to 450 discrimination complaints. Staff hand-delivered [...]
Swarthmore Students Are Learning: It Was Never About Palestinian Rights
May 14, 2025
Students at Swarthmore College are so close to understanding the conflict. An article in the Swarthmore Phoenix details the frustrations of student activists with the college’s Students for Justice in Palestine. The gist of their criticism is [...]
AFP Arabic Stops Mislabeling Northern Israeli Communities ‘Settlements”
August 10, 2021
A view of Metulla, northern Israel (Photo by Hadar Sela)After failing to set the record straight last May when Agence France Presse's Arabic service repeatedly referred to Jewish communities in northern Israel as "settlements," the [...]
NY Times Praises Ilhan Omar’s Book While Glossing Over Her Antisemitism
August 19, 2020
A recent New York Times book review boosts Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) autobiography while glossing over her antisemitism. In the paper’s Aug. 16, 2020 edition, NYT reporter Christina Cauterucci writes: The memoir offers breathing room [...]
When TV Interviews of Ilhan Omar Constitute Journalistic Malpractice
August 11, 2020
Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) documented animosity toward Jews and Israel was ignored in recent interviews by MSNBC and C-SPAN. MSNBC’s The Beat for July 23, 2020 included host Ari Melber’s 10-minute conversation at 6:16 [...]
Boston TV Station WCVB Teamed Up With Terrorist Supporter CAIR
July 7, 2020
WCVB-TV (channel 5) (Boston’s ABC network affiliate) recently misled area viewers about a matter involving antisemitic propaganda. This occurred on its local Sunday show Cityline hosted by Karen Holmes Ward who is described by the [...]
Harper’s Magazine Echoed Palestinian Propaganda Condemning Israel And America
June 2, 2020
Writing in Harper's, Kevin Baker condemns the U.S. Middle East peace plan [“The Striking Gesture,” Easy Chair, May 2020], mischaracterizing it as, “Give up all your [Palestinian] hopes and your holiest places, embark on a [...]