BP's altered photo distorts spill center activity

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS -- BP acknowledges it posted on its website an altered photo that exaggerates the activity at its Gulf oil spill command center in Houston.

The picture posted over the weekend showed workers monitoring a bank of 10 giant video screens displaying underwater images.

Spokesman Scott Dean says Tuesday that two screens were blank in the original picture and a staff photographer used Photoshop software to add images.

Dean says the company put the unaltered picture up Monday after a blogger wrote about telltale discrepancies.



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/21/1740051/bps-altered-photo-distorts-spill.html

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This reminds me of when the Bush campaign staff photoshopped in soldiers to fill in an audience back in 2004.

[SpiralHawk]

1. BP has a wicked bad case of Republicon Family Values

for sure...

[EFerrari]

2. Didn't John at Americablog catch this?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

3. To my knowledge they were the ones who first noticed it

A blogger brings down another scam.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

5. Found it, he was the first!

The image, which was first called into question by a blogger on the political site, Americablog, has a number of clearly altered elements, including some very poor cropping.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2366776,00.asp

:D

[EFerrari]

6. Thanks! n/t

[blueworld]

4. I miss the good old days when robber barons took their jobs seriously

They used to pay top dollar for important politicians, not outlet store prices.

They hired the best criminal masterminds to cook their books & create dishonest graphics. Now they outsource to Harold & Kumar.

I realize they have complete contempt for their customers, employees, taxpayers, laws, environment... but they don't even have pride enough to be crafty anymore! It's getting harder & harder to find a "Barefoot Bandit" you can root for. :cry:

[boppers]

11. I miss the days of serious Photoshop work myself.

I go back to the days when a *good* Photoshop box would cost $15,000-$100,000 (overclocked IIfx with 128Mb of RAM and a custom cooling system), and the art, and craft, was something learned over many years, passed from teacher to apprentice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_IIfx

These days, not so much on the equipment, teaching, art, or craft... and it shows.

[blueworld]

15. You obviously already know too much to be hired by BP:) n/t

[Downtown Hound]

7. Why would they even alter that?

Two blank screens in the middle of a bunch of others that have activity on them? No one would have even batted an eyebrow at it, and now it's a scandal.

BP is rather dumb, I should say.

[panzerfaust]

14. Photo was taken in 2001: Seems that it is more than filling a 'couple of blank screens'

http://www.americablog.com/2010/07/bp-photoshops-fake-photo-of-command.html

3) Why does the meta data show that the photo was actually taken on March 6, 2001? Or is BP next going to tell us that their professional photographer has never set the time and date stamp on his multi-thousand dollar camera?

[marions ghost]

8. Oh yeah...

I remember those photoshopped soldiers--to make it look like more were there.

This is the same thing--they want people to think there's something exciting to watch down there, and BP is on top of it all. And so we are supposed to believe BP? :thumbsdown: --just shows how much they want to spin this in every way. They think the general public is stupid.

What it also shows is the number of people who will happily participate in a fabrication.

Basically BP is running out the clock until the relief well hits.

[CoffeeCat]

9. BP also photoshopped another picture...

...a picture of boats in the water, supposedly cleaning up the oil.

Turns out that was shopped too.

In other words...there is no command center and there are no boats in the water cleaning up the oil.

[boppers]

10. That would be a failure in logic.

Enhancement of an image does not mean that the reverse of the image is true.

[lostnfound]

12. Much ado about nothing, in my opinion

Their grotesque and criminal irresponsibility toward the environment, their workers, and the people who depend on the Gulf (including those of us who eat fish and breathe air) is all that matters. Having a PR department that's used to puffing up the corporate image? That's completely insignificant.

[RadioFlynn]

13. shouldn't the media report this scandal a lot?

They'd rather hype Lyndsay Lohan's 2 week jail term than this real scandal about BP's fake photos.