On Web, Error Is Uncovered Through Relentless Pursuit (Kaloogian photo)

[CornField]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/30/national/30candidate.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=login&adxnnlx=1143694684-qbydZCaD56T1rG2vye903Q

Starting Tuesday afternoon and working through the night, a group of bloggers dissected a photo and a caption on the Web site of a Republican Congressional candidate in California, Howard Kaloogian, and declared it a fraud. Within hours, Mr. Kaloogian withdrew the picture, blamed an unnamed staff member for the blunder and apologized.

The whole kerfuffle would be of no moment, except that Mr. Kaloogian posted the photo to illustrate a peaceful and prosperous Baghdad that he claims the antiwar liberals who run the so-called mainstream news media never show.

...

The color photograph shows a bustling street corner with a variety of shops, billboards and fashionably dressed pedestrians. The caption reads, "Iraq (including Baghdad) is much more calm and stable than what many people believe it to be. But each day, the news media finds any violence occurring in the country and screams and shouts about it — in part because many journalists are opposed to the U.S. effort to fight terrorism."

It turns out that the photo was taken in a suburb of Istanbul last summer by a member of a group Mr. Kaloogian led to the Middle East in support of President Bush. Mr. Kaloogian said photos taken by the party had been mixed up.

(more)

Good job, folks!

[Tiggeroshii]

1. Great stuff

:-)

[Radio_Lady]

2. Anybody catch the photo before it was deleted?

For the technically challenged, how DO you prove or disprove whether a photo is real or photoshopped?

[CornField]

5. This one wasn't photoshopped

It was a picture of a completely different city -- one that was recognized as Istanbul.

[EST]

6. Olberman has it on his show, tonight.

[Radio_Lady]

12. I missed his show tonight. Got the photo from one of the other sites.

Thanks everybody.

[magellan]

8. The photo on Kaloogian's site was taken at street level

It was aimed down a side street and showed shop signs that read Edo (Turkish ice cream) and 2.Noter (Turkish notary public). A young woman in a pink spaghetti-strap top walked with a young man in the near left of the shot; everyone else was in similar western-styled street clothes. Also there was a yellow taxi just leaving the shot and a potted plant on the corner near a subway entrance!

The replacement photo is obviously taken from some height and distance, probably from a hotel in the Green Zone, so how Kaloogian can still claim things are calm and stable is beyond me. It's kind of like looking down from a shuttle in orbit and saying, "Isn't the world peaceful!"

The new photo is here http://www.kaloogianforcongress.com/aboutus.asp?id06=116&par06=104# . Scroll down for 'Downtown Baghdad'.

[EST]

9. Isn't it late winter/early spring in Baghdad?

All those deciduous trees, heavily green and leafed out have me puzzled.

[BrotherBuzz]

15. His trip to Iraq was in July 2005

[EST]

19. Thanks.

That being the case, how is it that he purports to know and have seen so much about how it is, right now, versus the reporting.
I've awake for about 60 hours so confusion is likely.

Those idiots would lie about their mother's maiden name, so who should ever trust them to tell the straight of it.

[BrotherBuzz]

23. Everything they know about Iraq is made from whole cloth

Heck, Melanie Morgan (part of the entourage) keep insisting there were WMD even after the White House admitted there were none. She also reported she learned from an Iraqi general the Iraqi Army was at 60% strength and growing while we were hearing testimony from Congress that there were only three Iraqi Battalions functioning in the whole of Iraq. Oh, and nobody can even find the damn ghost general now.

Kaloogian et al are nothing but a bunch of smarmy yahoos, and yes, they do lie!

[magellan]

16. I think that's legit

Here's a photo I just found on Senator Enzi's site from his trip to Iraq in March last year. Notice the trees in the background are fully leafed out.



The trees in these photos might be more like the myrtle, which stays green all year round here in FL. (It just gets greener and leafier in summer.) Dunno for sure, just my guess! But your question does illustrate how once you catch these f'ers lying, you can never trust 'em again....

[lovuian]

3. I saw the picture on the General Discussion

they pointed out all the things wrong... Great work!!!

[magellan]

4. The photos were mixed up by staff, yeah right.

More like Kaloogian's practicing lying and covering his a$$ for his Republican congressional stint. He'll be in good company...if he makes it.

[EST]

7. No doubt he is now qualified to apply for his ordination

papers as a fundamentalist evangelical "Conservative" spiritual leader or priest.
He can instruct all the little whiners in Sunday school so they can grow up to be big pooplicon politicians.
How can they accept so blithely such dishonesty and detestable ethics? Ugh! Makes me feel filthy.

[magellan]

10. They're the filthy ones. We shouldn't accept candidates like Kaloogian.

Used to be that the majority of those in government were honorable and moral. Slithery scam artists like the current lot were the exception, not the rule. I don't remember those times myself...I'm 43...but I understand that truth and honor were once the standard -- and liars like Kaloogian would have their funding pulled rather than being welcomed with open arms into Congress.

[Old and In the Way]

13. He's well qualified to run as a Republican, though.

I think it is a 'must have' to be ready and willing to lie/deceive the people. In fact, given all the corruption that we see in the Republican Party today, I think any honest Republican would find it tough sledding to make it through the primary. Kaloogian has established his creds as a propagandist and character assassin, so the deceit is expected. Like a good Republican, he accepts no responsibility and blames someone else for his problem when caught.

Seems to me, he'd have picked up on the mistake once the webpage was published, because the observation was just so clear. Now I am waiting for the street-level pics that support his observation. He must have those, right?

[magellan]

18. Ain't that the pitiful truth.

An honest Republican would never make it to the primary; too many government lies to prop up.

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for those street level photos from Kaloogian showing calm and happy Iraqis enjoying a stable day in Baghdad...unless you look good in blue.

[WhiteTara]

11. error my ass

what a lying sack of sh*t. The propaganda is flying thick and fast. I watched an obvious plant on a Norah ODonnel story with Pickles standing behind *. "Behind every great man stands a good woman" crap was the message of that piece of trash. Norah is quite the shill and this guy is so obvious that one can only :puke:

[glitch]

41. My first thought too. NYT getting good at obfuscation for the far right.

I wonder why?

[WhiteTara]

43. well, I have a bunch of guesses

but if Clinton gets to buy the KR papers, look out lucy, a new sheriff will come to town, the journalists will be beating a path to the door and some real reporting will come out, then they'll have a run for their money.

[HuffleClaw]

14. 'error' my ass

a blatant falsehood. and the replacement photo is hilarious. a wide shot that shows no detail at all, that kaloogian STILL claims proves that a peaceful normal baghdad exists.

[IndianaGreen]

17. Kaloogian made Keith Olbermann's "worse person in the world" list

coming in third behind Rush Limbaugh (worst) and Cynthia McKinney (worser).

[northofdenali]

20. Note that the NYT used "kerfuffle"?

Shades of Shrub!

Also, so very typical of repukes, Mr. Kaloowhatsis blames the typical unnamed "staffer"..........

Is he series?!!111

[Jane Austin]

21. I associate "Kerfuffle" with Rachel Maddow, who's being using it on

Air America for nearly two years.

Besides, Shrub doesn't even know how to pronounce it. He say "Kerflufle".

[northofdenali]

22. What do you expect from Mr. Misunderestimated

whose children is learning and might go nuke you lur?

[Jane Austin]

25. No kidding.

I think I'd have been surprised if he'd pronounced it right. :)

[tenshi816]

24. I've been using "kerfuffle" for many years.

Trust the Chimp to taint a perfectly good word.

[rodeodance]

26. well well, even the NYT's find this story signiicant. Wonder if Kaloogian

is having a fit>

[caligirl]

27. The MSM should be grateful for this one. They are accused of

ignoring a facet of the war by a President for political expediency. He is dumping his responsibility once again. The MSM should be happy to post this everywhere, afterall we know they burned us and the public 5 years ago, its not like the blogosphere owes them anything.

[pinniped]

28. I saw the jerk's replacement pic.

It seems he was too chickenshit to take a street level pic of the allegedly calm downtown Baghdad.

Here is the original Istanbul Iraq pic:

[Ice4Clark]

38. Here's the original text that went with the pic

Downtown Baghdad

We took this photo of dowtown Baghdad while we were in Iraq. Iraq (including Baghdad) is much more calm and stable than what many people believe it to be. But, each day the news media finds any violence occurring in the country and screams and shouts about it - in part because many journalists are opposed to the U.S. effort to fight terrorism.



trying to paint a rosy picture of bagdad............I love the part in bold....glad you all were able to hold this guys feet to the flames. Too bad we can't do the same to the media and get the folks to really listen.

[stickdog]

29. On Web, Error Is Uncovered Through Relentless Pursuit (DU makes NY Times!)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/30/national/30candidate.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

The sleuths of cyberspace never sleep. Starting Tuesday afternoon and working through the night, a group of bloggers dissected a photo and a caption on the Web site of a Republican Congressional candidate in California, Howard Kaloogian, and declared it a fraud. Within hours, Mr. Kaloogian withdrew the picture, blamed an unnamed staff member for the blunder and apologized.

The whole kerfuffle would be of no moment, except that Mr. Kaloogian posted the photo to illustrate a peaceful and prosperous Baghdad that he claims the antiwar liberals who run the so-called mainstream news media never show. Mr. Kaloogian, a former state assemblyman, is one of 18 candidates running for the San Diego Congressional seat vacated when Representative Randy Cunningham, a Republican, resigned and later went off to prison after being convicted of taking $2.4 million in bribes.

The color photograph shows a bustling street corner with a variety of shops, billboards and fashionably dressed pedestrians. The caption reads, "Iraq (including Baghdad) is much more calm and stable than what many people believe it to be. But each day, the news media finds any violence occurring in the country and screams and shouts about it — in part because many journalists are opposed to the U.S. effort to fight terrorism."

It turns out that the photo was taken in a suburb of Istanbul last summer by a member of a group Mr. Kaloogian led to the Middle East in support of President Bush. Mr. Kaloogian said photos taken by the party had been mixed up.

[Up2Late]

30. WooHoo!

Way to go!:toast:

So, who was it again? :beer:

[file83]

31. In the beginning, bloggers reported about the MSM, now it's the MSM

reporting on the bloggers! :woohoo:

[sandnsea]

32. Note to self, be nicer

I don't want you guys to ever come after me!! :scared:

(Good work everybody! :thumbsup: )

[tabasco]

33. Another republican fraud liar crook exposed.

Good work DU'ers!!

The Party of Personal Responsibility once again blames an "unnamed staffer."

[DearAbby]

34. The sleuths of cyberspace never sleep!

:toast:

[Cooley Hurd]

35. Perhaps it's early, but I don't see the DU credit...

:shrug:

[Ignacio Upton]

36. They didn't credit us specifically

I've seen DU, Daily Kos, and TPM each get credit in separate articles for point out the picture.

[DoYouEverWonder]

37. Why is NYT's giving credit to Josh Marshall

and they don't even mention DU?

[Karmakaze]

39. I posted this on another thread, but what the hell...

Kaloogian was in Bahgdad with a bunch of Right Wing radio hosts. However he doesn't seem to have coordinated this "Baghdad is calm and stable" campaign with them.

Here are the words of one of the radio hosts who was with Kaloogian in Baghdad.

On Wednesday July 13, 2005 I had the opportunity to go out on patrol with the US Army stationed in Baghdad 3 times, including foot patrol with the New Iraqi Army.

<snip>

The International Zone in Baghdad is considered the “Green” Zone. Green in military terminology means that the soldiers weapon is unloaded, amber means loaded with no bullet in the chamber, and red, loaded and ready to fire. There have been very few incidences of violence in the IZ or Green Zone over the past several months. Security is strict and has been successful at keeping out the terrorist murderers. (There was an attack at the gate where I interviewed the sentries about security procedures to enter the green zone the day after I was there. In this attack one US soldier and several Iraqi citizens were killed. An Iraqi Army sentry killed a second suicide bomber before his bomb could go off.

<snip>

It is apparent that the Iraqi children do not fear the US soldiers walking in their full military gear carrying weapons and driving armored humvees. Of course this policy of providing gifts, food and candy to children and citizens has now come under attack as making the innocent citizens the target of the Iraqi suicide bombers. While on patrol, less than one half mile from us, a murderer took advantage of this and rammed a stopped humvee, surrounded by civilians, women and children, and killed more than 20 of these innocents as well as one of the US soldiers at the humvee.

<snip>

One of the Iraqi interpreters was wearing an American Flag handkerchief on his head. I asked him if this made him a target for the terrorists. He proudly pointed to the Iraqi insignia on his arm and said, “I am Iraqi. I love America.” The US soldiers I was with told me he would probably not live through the year.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1445804/posts

Ok so while Kaloogian and his Krew were in Baghdad, a Humvee was suicide bombed, killing a US soldier and 20 civillians, and even the Green Zone itself was attacked by suicide bombers, killing another US soldier and yet more Iraqis. This guy meets an Iraqi interpretor working for the US military, and is told by soldiers the guy probably won't live through the year.

And this is calm and stable?

In another report from Baghdad, Kaloogian himself remarks on how hard it is to wear a heavy bulletproof vest in 120 degree heat. So it was so calm and stable in Baghdad that he had to wear body armour at all times. LOL!

[glitch]

40. Intentionally misleading now refered to as "error" by NYT.

Just like intentionally hacking or rigging can be called "glitching" I suppose.

[Rose Siding]

42. "I call this one C.S.I. Baghdad."

LOL It's like the real media came out to play for this one :D

"It demonstrates that there's a reserve army of unpaid researchers ready to mobilize at a moment's notice," Professor Kaplan said. "I call this one C.S.I. Baghdad."