Comments on: Comments on 19759

Post number 19759

mrbula — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 18:43:31 -0800

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.

By: joemaller

joemaller — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 18:53:54 -0800

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.

By: aznblader

aznblader — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 18:55:18 -0800

Here is the same picture, with the last sentence deleted.

By: pitchblende

pitchblende — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 18:59:30 -0800

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.

By: XQUZYPHYR

XQUZYPHYR — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 19:01:01 -0800

My God, it must be that biased AP that everyone on the Yahoo message boards keep talking about. [/sarcasm]

By: pitchblende

pitchblende — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 19:04:40 -0800

Aha! Here we go. Looks like maybe part of this Reuters story got accidentally(?) stuck onto the mostly unrelated ground zero Reuters photo caption.

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 19:09:19 -0800

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

By: birdherder

birdherder — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 19:11:04 -0800

But why is the photo categorized in the "India" section of the photos?

By: filchyboy

filchyboy — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 19:34:09 -0800

This is exactly what makes the internet so much fun!

By: drstrangelove

drstrangelove — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 19:49:47 -0800

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

By: donkeyschlong

donkeyschlong — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 19:56:30 -0800

Nothing quite like pissing on the gravesite of 3000 innocent people. Oh right. Criticizing our foreign policy now equals desecrating the dead.

By: Steve_at_Linnwood

Steve_at_Linnwood — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 20:03:53 -0800

Oh right. Criticizing our foreign policy now equals desecrating the dead. When it is the caption of Ground Zero it is.

By: evanizer

evanizer — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 20:06:04 -0800

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.

By: Grod

Grod — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 20:10:42 -0800

. . .

By: schlaager

schlaager — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 20:12:17 -0800

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.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 20:20:18 -0800

now you've gone and stirred up all the right wing bush lovers around here, damnit!

By: gsteff

gsteff — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 20:20:39 -0800

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

By: gsteff

gsteff — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 20:21:43 -0800

Well, for the record, I do not support armed revolution against Bush. Just intelligent voting, not that that seems to help.

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 20:36:29 -0800

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.

By: websavvy

websavvy — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 20:39:35 -0800

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.

By: schlaager

schlaager — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 20:41:44 -0800

I second the motion for intelligent voting.

By: wsg

wsg — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 20:44:31 -0800

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.

By: anildash

anildash — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 22:07:43 -0800

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.

By: Addlepated

Addlepated — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 22:30:06 -0800

anildash - that really is weird. Wonder what got their panties in a wad?

By: adamgreenfield

adamgreenfield — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 22:33:21 -0800

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

By: taz

taz — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 23:08:34 -0800

This one is also quite interesting.

By: Wood

Wood — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 23:24:49 -0800

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.

By: taz

taz — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 23:45:19 -0800

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.

By: kevin123

kevin123 — Fri, 06 Sep 2002 04:12:38 -0800

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.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Fri, 06 Sep 2002 06:04:38 -0800

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.

By: krewson

krewson — Fri, 06 Sep 2002 06:56:44 -0800

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.

By: Mars Saxman

Mars Saxman — Fri, 06 Sep 2002 07:25:06 -0800

"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

By: pmurray63

pmurray63 — Fri, 06 Sep 2002 08:19:50 -0800

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.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Fri, 06 Sep 2002 09:12:58 -0800

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.

By: anildash

anildash — Fri, 06 Sep 2002 16:32:34 -0800

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?