09-07-2012, 05:11 AM
Beware the 'trusted' source
Video Here
But it just goes to show that in the digital age, fakery is very hard to pull off. Someone, somewhere, will catch you out.
It's a lesson ABC News learned this week, after it fell for a much more serious deception.
On Sunday May the 8th, some disturbing video about the protest in Syria was aired on ABC News 24
Kathryn Stolarchuk: Video uploaded to a social media website purports to show Syrian security beating detained protesters and holding guns to their heads. In the video, which can't be independently verified, around eight men can be seen lying face down on the floor, while armed guards lift them up by their belts, pile them on top of each other,...
ABC News 24, 8th May, 2011
The same footage turned up that evening on SBS World News...
(But) this is what anyone captured by the security forces can expect...
Once again, this footage can't be verified, but it's said to show Syrian troops beating detained protesters.
SBS World News, 8th May, 2011
The ABC also posted the footage online, with this caption:
Amateur video, which cannot be independently verified, shows heavily-armed Syrian security beating anti-government protesters.
ABC News Online, 8th May, 2011
Two days later, we got an email from a person who requested anonymity. He doubted the video's authenticity, because...
-They are not Syrian army uniforms
-The accents of the men talking are Lebanese particularly from Tripoli north Lebanon
-The car has a Lebanese licence plate
Please do your own research to verify this.
Email from Media Watch Tipster, May, 2011
We set out to do just that. Word of our interest reached a producer at ABC radio current affairs, Jess Hill, who has specialised in recent months in cultivating contacts throughout the Middle East, largely through Twitter. On Thursday, on her own initiative, she sent out this tweet:
jessradio:
Can any Syrian tweeps identify where this video came from?
Twitter, 12th May, 2011
With a link to the ABC online video. Within five minutes, she got a reply:
TrellaLB Imad Bazzi:
this video is not in Syria, this was shot in Beirut, years ago on 7 May attacks, the video shows members of Hizballa & Amal
Twitter, 12th May, 2011
Hezbollah and Amal, of course, are both Shi-ite Lebanese organisations with their own militias. A second tweet from Trella LB read:
and here is the original video bragging about what they did
Twitter, 12th May, 2011
The link he provided leads to this YouTube video - it's undoubtedly the footage screened by the ABC and SBS. But sure enough, it's captioned
Lebanon: Prisoners... caught by Hezbollah and Amal
Uploaded by aylender on 20 Aug, 2008
YouTube, 20th August, 2008
The pity is that nobody at ABC News 24 or ABC Online thought to make use of Jess Hill's contacts when Reuters - one of the most trusted news sources in the world - sent the video to its clients on the morning of Sunday May the 8th with this disclaimer:
Video uploaded to a social media website purports to show Syrian security beating detained protesters and holding guns to their heads.
REUTERS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT OF THIS VIDEO...
Reuters, 8th May, 2011
Despite those warnings, ABC News 24 screened the video. And, as Gaven Morris, head of ABC Continuous News, frankly admitted to Media Watch, it shouldn't have.
We were wrong to run the video. Though Reuters is a very trusted source, there were enough doubts in their own sourcing for us to have chosen to leave it alone.
Gaven Morris, Head, ABC Continuous News, 12th May, 2011
Read Gaven Morris's responses to Media Watch's questions
On the face of it SBS was even more wrong. Because 20 minutes before its world news went to air, it received this warning from Reuters:
EDITORS PLEASE NOTE : REUTERS IS WITHDRAWING THIS VIDEO AS WE HAVE NOW ESTABLISHED THAT IT IS FILE FOOTAGE FROM LEBANON IN 2008, NOT SYRIA AS ORIGINALLY THOUGHT.
PLEASE ACCEPT OUR APOLOGIES
Reuters, 8th May, 2011
Read Reuters response to Media Watch's questions
However says SBS news, the warning carried:
No indication in the slug line that there was any retraction or correction contained in the copy. The sentence about the retraction was buried some distance down the copy
Mark Boyd, Executive Producer,SBS World News Australia, 16th May, 2011
Read Mark Boyd's response to Media Watch's questions
So SBS didn't notice the retraction, and nor it seems did anyone at ABC news Online. The video wasn't taken down from its website until Media Watch came calling four days later.
The moral: the new social media, used cautiously, are a boon to journalists. But used without due care, they can be a portal for fakery and propaganda.
http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcr...218415.htm
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.