The only adjective that seems to describe the state of the press these days is the compound modifier "wacky-tragic."
The U.S.-run Web site for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty published a photograph that is - as far as we can tell - a satellite picture of a nuclear laboratory in Natanz, Iran. The non-government run Web site for CNN also ran the same picture, and last year, we also ran the picture to accompany a column on the Opinion Page. The Associated Press provided it to us, but according to the Institute for Science and International Security, the photo was originally taken by Digital Globe, a satellite photograph company.
The problem is that, on the CNN Web site, the picture was misidentified in some stories as a North Korean nuclear site, and used - with different captions - on both stories about Iran's nuclear ambitions and North Korea's nuclear program. On the Radio Free Europe Web site, the picture was used for stories about Iran, North Korea, and stories about intelligence failures in Iraq prior to the war. Indeed, the filename of the photo was actually "Iraq-Nuclear.jpg"
Since the story was first reported by blogger Brad Friedman on Tuesday, CNN has made corrections and replaced the photographs on its stories. Don Jensen, director of communications for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said that the photos in questions were misidentified, but no correction has run on the RFE/RL Web site - the photos were merely pulled on stories not dealing with the nuclear facility in Natanz, and the file was renamed.
It's an easy mistake to make, specifically after the passage of the "Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005." Section 914 of the act makes satellite photography the government takes or buys immune from Freedom of Information Act requests.
There is no question both Iran and North Korea have nuclear programs - Iran admits to researching nuclear technology for non-weapon energy production. North Korea says it has nuclear bombs. But the media has not had good luck with satellite photography; before the invasion of Iraq, then Secretary of State Colin Powell used satellite photography to make the case before the U.N. that Iraq had WMD laboratories. That turned out to be false. What, in retrospect, were probably fire trucks became "decontamination vehicles," and flatbed trucks became "mobile weapons labs."
Considering this administration's willingness to misrepresent the facts to the tragiwacky media and ambitions to use propaganda, until satellite photography is fully opened to the public, it should enjoy the same skepticism one would reserve for a report in Chinese news agency Xinhua or communist-run Pravda.
Be the first to comment on this article!