Fox News Engages In ‘Disgraceful Propaganda’ With Digitally Altered, Misleading Photos about Seattle Protests
Fox News published digitally altered and misleading photos relating to Seattle’s Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), and when asked about them, incorrectly stated where and when the photos were taken, The Seattle Times reported Friday.
Fox’s homepage on Friday featured a photo of a man standing with a rifle in front of a damaged storefront.
From the story:
The image was actually a mashup of photos from different days, taken by different photographers — it was done by splicing a Getty Images photo of an armed man, who had been at the protest zone June 10, with other images from May 30 of smashed windows in downtown Seattle. Another altered image combined the gunman photo with yet another image, making it appear as though he was standing in front of a sign declaring “You are now entering Free Cap Hill.”
Furthermore, the site’s homepage for a time displayed an image of a man running through a burning street above a series of stories about Seattle. The photo, however, was actually of a scene in St. Paul, Minnesota, on May 30.
Fox offered no disclaimers about the photos on its site. Both were removed after being contacted by the Times.
In a statement to the paper, a Fox News spokeswoman misidentified when the photos were taken, claiming they were from “this week,” when in fact one was from May 30.
One photojournalism ethics expert told the paper the incident is “disgraceful propaganda and terribly misrepresentative of documentary journalism in times like this, when truth-telling and accountability is so important.”
