Interesting commentary

September 5, 2002 6:43 PM

Interesting commentary on a Yahoo News photo of the former World Trade Center site. I wonder if this is some subtle hack or if it's just someone at Yahoo screwing around. The URL seems to be legitimate, but I can't find that photo with the same caption in Yahoo's regular photo rotation.
posted by mrbula (34 comments total)

Wow, that was blunt.

Take a picture, I expect that link will be gone in a day or two.

For anyone unable to see the image, it's an aerial photo of Ground Zero in the Photos-India section of Yahoo News. The caption reads:

Recovery and debris removal work continues at the site of the World Trade Center known as "ground zero" in New York, March 25, 2002. Human rights around the world have been a casualty of the U.S. "war on terror" since September 11. REUTERS/Peter Morgan

Gotta love those Reuters scare quotes.
posted by joemaller at 6:53 PM on September 5, 2002

Here is the same picture, with the last sentence deleted.
posted by aznblader at 6:55 PM on September 5, 2002

It does appear in these search results for "ground zero" in the photos section. 3rd photo down without the human rights reference, as aznblader found, and the 5th photo down with it.

What does this mean? I have no idea.
posted by pitchblende at 6:59 PM on September 5, 2002

My God, it must be that biased AP that everyone on the Yahoo message boards keep talking about. [/sarcasm]
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 7:01 PM on September 5, 2002

Aha! Here we go.

Looks like maybe part of this Reuters story got accidentally(?) stuck onto the mostly unrelated ground zero Reuters photo caption.
posted by pitchblende at 7:04 PM on September 5, 2002

Sure, figure out the truth, pitchblende. How much fun is that?

Good detective work.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:09 PM on September 5, 2002

But why is the photo categorized in the "India" section of the photos?
posted by birdherder at 7:11 PM on September 5, 2002

This is exactly what makes the internet so much fun!
posted by filchyboy at 7:34 PM on September 5, 2002

Nothing quite like pissing on the gravesite of 3000 innocent people.
posted by drstrangelove at 7:49 PM on September 5, 2002

Nothing quite like pissing on the gravesite of 3000 innocent people.

Oh right. Criticizing our foreign policy now equals desecrating the dead.
posted by donkeyschlong at 7:56 PM on September 5, 2002

Oh right. Criticizing our foreign policy now equals desecrating the dead.

When it is the caption of Ground Zero it is.
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 8:03 PM on September 5, 2002

It's not the job of Reuters photo caption writers to "criticize our foreign policy". It's their job to write pertinent, descriptive captions for wire service photos.

Not that I think that's what happened in this case, as it seems pretty much like an editorial goof. A very telling one, but a goof nonetheless.
posted by evanizer at 8:06 PM on September 5, 2002

. . .
posted by Grod at 8:10 PM on September 5, 2002

He's not just criticizing our foreign policy. Take a look at what's going on around you.

Our freedoms are slipping away like a prom queen's virginity.
posted by schlaager at 8:12 PM on September 5, 2002

now you've gone and stirred up all the right wing bush lovers around here, damnit!
posted by quonsar at 8:20 PM on September 5, 2002

Our freedoms are slipping away like a prom queen's virginity.

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin
posted by gsteff at 8:20 PM on September 5, 2002

Well, for the record, I do not support armed revolution against Bush. Just intelligent voting, not that that seems to help.
posted by gsteff at 8:21 PM on September 5, 2002

I adore Benjy.

It's like that thread awhile back where parents were willing to put a homing device thingy in their child's head for security reasons, disregarding that it means sacrificing personal freedoms when the kid's an adult. Either that or a nasty scar when he gets it taken out at the age of 18.

Unless of course by then the conservatives make it a law that we all have to wear one, which isn't too much if a stretch to imagine, considering the direction we're going now.
posted by ZachsMind at 8:36 PM on September 5, 2002

Nothing quite like pissing on the gravesite of 3000 innocent people.

You must have good eyes. Even the heavy machinery looks like little dots. I can't see anybody pissing.
posted by websavvy at 8:39 PM on September 5, 2002

I second the motion for intelligent voting.
posted by schlaager at 8:41 PM on September 5, 2002

ZachsMind,

...parents were willing to put a homing device thingy in their child's head for security reasons, disregarding that it means sacrificing personal freedoms when the kid's an adult.

Many of us already carry homing devices everywhere we go; they are called cellphones and they do an amazing job of keeping track of our movements.
posted by wsg at 8:44 PM on September 5, 2002

I've been tracking editorial bias in Yahoo news photos for a while. Check out this bizarre bit of competitor-bashing in Yahoo's tech slideshow of video conferencing software.
posted by anildash at 10:07 PM on September 5, 2002

anildash - that really is weird. Wonder what got their panties in a wad?
posted by Addlepated at 10:30 PM on September 5, 2002

"the former World Trade Center site":

Last time I looked, it was still the *site* of the World Trade Center.
posted by adamgreenfield at 10:33 PM on September 5, 2002

This one is also quite interesting.
posted by taz at 11:08 PM on September 5, 2002

I think that "deviant" is the pope's word (if that's what you're refering to.) The caption is simply describing what the pope said.
posted by Wood at 11:24 PM on September 5, 2002

No. I just thought that the juxtaposition of that particular photo with that caption was amusing... I don't think there was any particular political statement being made.
posted by taz at 11:45 PM on September 5, 2002

I had to stop looking at Yahoo photos. Somehow the most grotesque images show up in the top ten (a lot of sickos out there). I've seen more horrible images on Yahoo photos than ever before in my life. Some of them will be stuck mercilessly in my brain forever, and I will have to feel sick all over again. Remember the one about a month ago where a man cut off his gangrened fingers? I think I'm going to throw up right now.
posted by kevin123 at 4:12 AM on September 6, 2002

I once knew a guy who wrote his master's degree thesis on variations in mosquito genitalia. Which is nearly as interesting as studying bias in Yahoo news photos.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:04 AM on September 6, 2002

Usually the photographers are the ones writing the captions. And while these folks can take great pictures, most of 'em can't really write well, much less figure out what's editorializing.
posted by krewson at 6:56 AM on September 6, 2002

"the former World Trade Center site":

Last time I looked, it was still the *site* of the World Trade Center.

the [former World Trade Center] site
vs
the former [World Trade Center] site
posted by Mars Saxman at 7:25 AM on September 6, 2002

Pitchblende has it more or less correct.

Photos frequently move across the wire to accompany specific articles -- in this case, the story that pitchblende found. The caption is simply a way to tie the photograph to the article.
posted by pmurray63 at 8:19 AM on September 6, 2002

One can only imagine the outcry, however, should the subject of the photo be, oh, I dunno -- Jenin, Bhopal, some other favored-by-the-politically-correct ultimate symbol of victimhood, and similar scare quotes were used.

Recovery of "dead" bodies continues at the site of the "massacre". Advocates of "human rights" claim they were killed by "uniformed soldiers".

In that kind of story, editorializing with scare quotes would be completely unacceptable.
posted by dhartung at 9:12 AM on September 6, 2002

dan, i think it's noted here because it's considered unacceptable here, too. that's why i noticed it, at least. what do you want us to do, type in all caps to express our anger towards a yahoo editor who doesn't read MeFi?
posted by anildash at 4:32 PM on September 6, 2002