Which reminds me of yet another “deception through photo-op” I was witness to in the Middle East.

It took place in East Jerusalem at a Muslim kindergarten which was walled off from a very busy intersection undergoing construction The wall happened to be a wire fence with barbed wire scrolled across the top. Some of the little children were crying, noses running, of course and were pushed up against the fence, staring at the the journalists and photographer who happened to be given a tour of the area. An AP photographer shot the scene from his perspective, outside the fence, and later it was printed, with caption: Israel bars refugee children from Jerusalem. Or something like that.

Which reminds me of even another time when I was rushing down the corridors of the American Colony Hotel in E. Jerusalem and bumped headlong into Tom Brokow, the then anchor of the NBC (?) news. I looked up at him, stunned, and blurted out, “What are YOU doing here? Is there a war?”

And he stopped dead in his tracks and said excitedly, “IS THERE????? What do you know? Tell me!”. When I came up sourceless, he dismissed me and turned to his cameraman and said, “Do I look tired? How’s my face?” Apparently he was in Jerusalem to do a spot on the unrest at the Temple Mount.

Beware Journalists, cameramen, editors. They look for the best, most effective shot and story because it sells, not always because it tells the truth. I speak from experience, I am an art director.

dvr

There is a classic scene in that movie where a high-ranking officer confronts Jester about the apparent contradiction between the words “Born to Kill” written on his helmet and the peace pin on his uniform. Its the kind of exchange that a soldier would love, and understand, the most and I bet that’s where the soldiers in the photo got the idea.

I wonder if those soldiers also had a peace pin, or peace symbol, on them, somewhere out of the camera’s view?

Photography seems to be at the center of the hearts and minds war, particularly in this age when they can be passed around so easily.