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Tuesday, August 08, 2006
The Ceremonial Display of the Baby
Posted by: Mary Katharine Ham at 9:57 PM

UPDATE: Much more deceit at Hot Air and Michelle's place.

My apologies for the gruesome nature of the photos, but...

We've seen it with Green Helmet Guy many times.

Pluck a tiny body from the wreckage of a bomb site, and instead of immediately covering or removing the victim, take great pains to display the victim to the assembled press. I was trolling the pictures from on Yahoo! from the Middle East today, and found another gross example of this "displaying of the baby."

Here's picture No. 1:

And, the cutline:

A Lebanese youth shows the body of a baby after it was recovered under debris of a destroyed building, attacked late Monday by Israeli forces, in the southern Beirut suburb of Chiah, Lebanon, Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2006. The raid on the Muslim southern suburb next to a Christian neighborhood killed at least 16 people, police officials said, as Lebanese civil defense rescuers were still working on recovering the bodies of citizens believed to be trapped under debris and concrete late Tuesday. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

AP - Tue Aug 8, 1:14 PM ET

Now, either AP photographer Lefteris Pitarakis is extremely acrobatic, or "Yellow Shirt" stretched out his pulling of the child from the wreckage quite a bit to oblige the photographer.

Here's photo No. 2

A Lebanese youth shows the body of a baby after it was recovered under debris of a destroyed building, attacked late Monday by Israeli forces, in the southern Beirut suburb of Chiah, Lebanon, Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2006. The raid on the Muslim southern suburb next to a Christian neighborhood killed at least 16 people, police officials said, as Lebanese civil defense rescuers were still working on recovering the bodies of citizens believed to be trapped under debris and concrete late Tuesday. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

AP - Tue Aug 8, 1:17 PM ET

Now, Lefteris Pitarakis would have had to move around the scene and probably climb up a pile of rubble to get this completely different vantage point on the same action. It seems a bit unlikely that "Yellow Shirt's" actions are just a natural part of removing bodies from the rubble. He's displaying the child, just as Green Helmet did, for quite a while before he bothers to take cover his body or remove him from the scene.

Civilian deaths during wartime are always a tragedy, especially those of children. Using those same children as political and P.R. props after their deaths is disgusting.

I just wonder how many other photographers were there, getting the same shot.

UPDATE: One of my commenters offers a word of caution:

Looks to me like the photos could have been take from the same vantage point, but the first one was zoomed in or cropped.

I think he may be right, looking at it closer. The poor child remains on display, but the photographer may not be misbehaving. If it was taken from the same vantage point, it means the photog caught "Yellow Shirt" twice as he was swinging the baby from one side of the crowd to the other.

If that's the case, photographer= all right, "rescue worker"= still trashy.



View in ascending order View in descending order
Photodork53 writes: Wednesday, August, 09, 2006 6:44 PM
A few things...

A very large sum of professional photojournalist have 2 camera bodies. So there is a possibility of Lefteris having 2 camera bodies (one wide, one zoom) which might be why the time sync is off.

Also as for the credibility of Lefteris, I actually got the opportunity to go with him on a shoot, and from what I observed and from the stories he's told me of his past shooting for the AP, he is one of the most ethical photographers I've met. (he refused to shoot something from a certain angle of a funeral scene after a TV reporter rotated the memorial picture 90 degrees to have it facing the casket and making possible to shoot both the picture and the people coming up to pay tribute)
YaakovWatkins writes: Wednesday, August, 09, 2006 4:39 PM
The people in the back
The crowd in the back of the wide angle picture look posed. People don't stand that way naturally.
Wade  writes: Wednesday, August, 09, 2006 3:48 PM
The three minute display looks real...
While the vantage point is very similar and is likely from the same perch, note that the gaggle of rescuers and their positions have changed quite a bit between photos.
Wade  writes: Wednesday, August, 09, 2006 3:48 PM
The three minute display looks real...
While the vantage point is very similar and is likely from the same perch, note that the gaggle of rescuers and their positions have changed quite a bit between photos.
A fine scotch writes: Wednesday, August, 09, 2006 8:17 AM
This is likely the same vantage point
I agree with those who've already commented that this is the same vantage point.

Look over the head of the guy wearing the helmet. There's a roughly circular piece of concrete with a roughly circular hole near the center. Immediately to the left of that is a piece of concrete approximately parallel with the ground.

Those same two items are in approximately the same place in relation to the guy in the helmet in the 2nd picture.

This doesn't excuse the disgusting display of the dead or Hezbo's manipulation of the media. But, there are other, more concrete, examples of media manipulation to focus on.
daydreamer writes: Wednesday, August, 09, 2006 2:06 AM
Two Separate Shots
In the first, zoomed, shot the photographer is standing to the right of (as well as above) the man holding the toddler. We have a 3/4 view of the man's face. The little boy's right foot is only a few inches above the edge of the stretcher, and his head appears to be upright. We have a clear view of the child's face.

In the second shot, the photographer stepped to the left of the point where he took the first photo. The man appears almost in profile, that is we see much more of the side of his head and very little of the front. The man has extended his arms above his head so that the child dangles far above the stretcher, and his head has fallen back behind his shoulders so that his chin points straight up. There must have been at least a minute or two between the photos because the male paramedic standing behind the stretcher in the first photo can hardly been seen in the second. He has turned to his left and squatted so that only the top of his head and his forehead appears above the arm of the female paramedic he was standing next to in the first photo.
Maggie4Life writes: Wednesday, August, 09, 2006 12:34 AM
Two different shots
I disagree with the idea that this is two different shots. In the first shot the man (who is young Lebanese btw) does not have his hands extended.

It would seem that one shot follows the other because in the second shot he is holding the baby aloft as though the poor little mite is a victory tropy.

I do believe that yellow shirt is a member of Hezbollah. They seem to be rather fond of this kind of trophy.
mockmook writes: Wednesday, August, 09, 2006 12:15 AM
TIME
Do you think AP would investigate the 3 minute gap between pictures? That guy holds the kid up for 3 minutes, disgusting!!! Yeah, I know the time stamps aren't definitive, but wouldn't it be nice if AP cared enough to prove that this wasn't "staged."
Rich writes: Tuesday, August, 08, 2006 11:38 PM
the photo
I find it odd that the young man in the photo has a sizable tatoo on his right shoulder and right arm.

To be honest he looks American
YouGottaBeKidding writes: Tuesday, August, 08, 2006 11:15 PM
Maybe one vantage point
Looks to me like the photos could have been take from the same vantage point, but the first one was zoomed in or cropped.

However, the big knot of people in the background watching the spectacle looks awfully suspicious to me. Shouldn't they be digging????
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