Magic bullets
Posted by Richard on August 16, 2007
The editors at The New Republic aren't the only journalist who are woefully ignorant regarding firearms ("square-backed" cartridges, indeed). From The Autonomist:
What follows is a caption from the AFP, and below that, the picture that accompanies it:
" An elderly Iraqi woman shows two bullets which she says hit her
house [emphasis added] following an early coalition forces raid in the
predominantly Shiite Baghdad suburb of Sadr City."
The only way those bullets hit her house was if someone threw them at her house.
You see, they've never been fired. For those of you unfamiliar with firearms, only the little copper-looking tip is the actual bullet. The larger, cylindrical casing below it holds the primer and the gunpowder that propels the bullet out of the firearm.
Nice going, AFP! Proof again, that members of the MSM are often dupes for terrorist propagandists, and know very little about things military.
Well, it proves they know very little about firearms. It doesn't prove they're dupes for terrorist propagandists — there are other possible explanations for the frequently recurring instances of fraudulent or staged photos. Instead of dupes, they could be willing accomplices.
Confederate Yankee noted that the same "photojournalist," Wissam al-Okaili, published a similar "magic bullet" picture featuring what appears to be the same woman in early July. So he tracked down a few other photos by al-Okaili. IMO, they suggest that this guy's "news photos" are manipulative, stage managed, and posed — and that he lacks creativity and imagination. But check them out for yourself. I'll let Confederate Yankee have the last word:
Time and again, al-Okaili returns to the same type of picture, and in the case of the female bullet magnet, the same people.
I'd say that that is troubling, and perhaps something AFP needs to discuss with him, as it makes his work appear to be more contrived than captured. While they're having this discussion, perhaps they can pull in AFP photo editors and explain how bullets and firearms function.
UPDATE: They're having Photoshop fun with Magic Bullet Lady at Ace of Spades.
UPDATE 2: Jeff Goldstein nailed it (emphasis added)(oops, forgot the link; sorry, Jeff!):
Of note: those most likely to believe these kinds of stories are those in the West who have little experience with firearms, but a whole lot of experience decrying their evils. Which is precisely at whom propaganda pieces like this are aimed — western elites who show an infinite capacity to over-value their own intelligence.
Hathor said
Alittle science literacy would go a long way.