The Illusion of Propaganda in the Digital World

With Iran showing off it's missle prowess this week, what's wrong with the front page of all these major newspapers?


One of those four launches never happened. The image was digitally altered from this photo:



With photos getting beamed around the world, in this case by Agence France-Presse, and published in newspapers and websites alike instantaneously, how do you know something is real?

This isn't a new problem. Think back to the O.J. Simpson trial when Time Magazine controversially altered a photo of the former football star for it's cover.

The challenge for media in the digital age is how to catch these things, and more importantly, how to acknowledge when they've been duped.

Iran clearly wanted to show four launches.

The real story is that their missile tests didn't quite go according to plan.

Like a very hairy Jake Gyllenhaal to me, Mahmoud.

Because everyone needs a sugar daddy sometimes...

If you execute someone, do they cease to exist?

Today, while speaking at Columbia University, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was asked about recent executions of homosexuals in his country. His answer:

“In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country. In Iran we do not have this phenomenon. I don’t know who’s told you that we have this.”

-Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran

There's so much I could say about this, but Canada's CBC News has a video from earlier this year that says it better.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE CBC REPORT

"We know what a person thinks not when he tells us what he thinks, but by his actions."

-Isaac Bashevis Singer