[backstage] Xinhua Doctored BBC Screenshot?
As someone who has a pronounced dislike of propaganda and misinformation, I have been following the recent events surrounding Tibet, quite carefully. By reading the news stories from both the Chinese and the Western point of view, one can see the large difference in opinions. I was interested today, to read on Xinhua, the Chinese State news agency, that the BBC had been accused of displaying an image of a ambulance with a caption stating that There is a heavy military presence in Lhasa.[1] Interested that it was citing a BBC article, I did a quick search to find the original article and accompanying photo [2]. The caption of the photo on the BBC page instead says There have been many reports of injuries and deaths in Lhasa. Intrigued by the differences that the articles show, I looked at the last updated text in both the Xinhua screenshot and the BBC article. They show exactly the same time and date. From this I would infer that the Xinhua screenshot has been doctored, however, in order to give them the benefit of the doubt: Does anyone BBC-side (or otherwise) have any idea about whether one can change one of these image captions in the live content without updating the last updated tag. If you think there are other explanations or can expand on anything I have said, feel free to. I would not be *surprised* to see doctored screenshot, however I would be interested about it's context and effect. I would also be interested if the BBC had silently changed the caption to this image in question. [1] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/23/content_7841316.htm [2] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7300312.stm Tim -- www.blog.tdobson.net If each of us have one object, and we exchange them, then each of us still has one object. If each of us have one idea, and we exchange them, then each of us now has two ideas. - George Bernard Shaw - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Xinhua Doctored BBC Screenshot?
A quick check of the Google cache would have told you it has changed and the screen shot is valid. Google claim they crawled the site at 17 Mar 2008 13:09:39 GMT. http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache%3Ahttp% 3A//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7300312.stm Adam On Mon, 2008-03-24 at 23:39 +, Tim Dobson wrote: As someone who has a pronounced dislike of propaganda and misinformation, I have been following the recent events surrounding Tibet, quite carefully. By reading the news stories from both the Chinese and the Western point of view, one can see the large difference in opinions. I was interested today, to read on Xinhua, the Chinese State news agency, that the BBC had been accused of displaying an image of a ambulance with a caption stating that There is a heavy military presence in Lhasa.[1] Interested that it was citing a BBC article, I did a quick search to find the original article and accompanying photo [2]. The caption of the photo on the BBC page instead says There have been many reports of injuries and deaths in Lhasa. Intrigued by the differences that the articles show, I looked at the last updated text in both the Xinhua screenshot and the BBC article. They show exactly the same time and date. From this I would infer that the Xinhua screenshot has been doctored, however, in order to give them the benefit of the doubt: Does anyone BBC-side (or otherwise) have any idea about whether one can change one of these image captions in the live content without updating the last updated tag. If you think there are other explanations or can expand on anything I have said, feel free to. I would not be *surprised* to see doctored screenshot, however I would be interested about it's context and effect. I would also be interested if the BBC had silently changed the caption to this image in question. [1] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/23/content_7841316.htm [2] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7300312.stm Tim - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Xinhua Doctored BBC Screenshot?
Tim Dobson wrote: I was interested today, to read on Xinhua, the Chinese State news agency, that the BBC had been accused of displaying an image of a ambulance with a caption stating that There is a heavy military presence in Lhasa.[1] The BBC did indeed show that; here's Google's cache of the page: http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:qH6sdYFO4PoJ:news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7300312.stm (with an earlier timestamp of 12:48 GMT). The alternate text on the image is still Chinese military check an ambulance, presumably from the people who took the photo, and whether that's what's happening or what Xinhua say is happening, who knows. I can't explain the same timestamp issue, but I do believe (I can't find the reference now, but I remember reading it) that BBC News can update the content without changing the last updated tag if it's marked as a minor change in their CMS or similar. ATB, Matthew - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
