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"RACHEL CORRIE, CONTINUED"
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The circumstances of American college student Rachel Corrie's March 16 death beneath an IDF bulldozer in Gaza remain unclear. The key unanswered question: Was Corrie visible and/or audible to the IDF driver just before the accident?
The consumer public got a huge dose of misleading information when
Associated Press distributed a photo showing Corrie, standing in
(apparently) direct view of the bulldozer driver, dressed in orange and speaking into a megaphone in the direction of the oncoming vehicle.
The AP caption reads: "Rachel was run over Sunday by the bulldozer that she was trying to stop from tearing down a building in the Rafah refugee camp, witnesses said."
See the AP photo at:
http://honestreporting.com/a/r/362.asp
The problem with the AP photo caption is that readers are led to believe that this photo depicts the very scene and moment of the accident. The implication is criminal recklessness on the part of the IDF driver.
In fact, however, this photo was NOT taken in the moments before Corrie's death. Joseph Smith, of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement, was the photographer and wrote a chronological account of the incident (published on pro-Palestinian websites).
Smith says that the photo of Corrie "standing with megaphone" is ascribed to the time period 2pm-4pm. In addition, during this period, Smith notes that the bulldozer "always stopped in time to avoid injuring them."
At the time of Corrie's death (5pm), Smith describes Corrie as "sitting, with arms waving" (no megaphone), and another colleague holding the megaphone from a distance.
Read Smith's account at:
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1284.shtml
Thus, the AP photo and caption fails to note the two most essential
factors in determining visibility or lack thereof: 1) Corrie was no longer standing, but had changed to a sitting position, and 2) she was no longer in possession of attention-grabbing megaphone.
When publishing such a photo, AP is obligated to explain details of
chronology; in the absence of any information, readers presume that since the bulldozer appears 8-10 feet away from Corrie, the photographer must have snapped the picture moments before the bulldozer hit her.
This photo was published by many of the 15,000 media outlets that AP
services. And though the accompanying articles may provide clarifying
information, a picture is worth a thousand words. In this case, by not providing a caption that clearly counterbalances the easy "misread," AP has misrepresented Corrie's death and contributed to a worldwide slander of the IDF.
Please send comments to AP:
[email protected][/email]
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Meanwhile, CNN.com juxtaposed a pair of "before and after" photos, which implied a particularly ambiguous sense of chronology. But when
HonestReporting.com provided additional information, CNN issued a "Caption Clarification." See it at:
http://cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/...eath/index.html
HonestReporting encourages members to monitor your local media to see if they used the misleading photos, as well as what information was provided in the photo caption and/or article itself to counterbalance any misconceptions.
---- GHANDI AND KING? ----
Meanwhile, the Toledo (Ohio) Blade published an editorial that compares Corrie with none less than Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr.
Did Corrie truly continue the legacy of Ghandi and King?
As noted in the previous HonestReporting communique, Corrie was
photographed last month burning an American flag in Gaza before young
schoolchildren (http://honestreporting.com/graphics/articles/corrie.jpg).
One wonders if the two true giants of human rights struggle would be
flattered by the comparison with the woman who appears in these photos.
Read the Toledo Blade editorial at:
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dl...D=2003103190095
Comments to the Managing Editor, Kurt Franck:
[email][email protected]
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Signature Suspended as it was deemed offensive.
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Damn right!
