Reuters Removes 920 Pictures by Hajj

Charles Johnson has thus far brought down a respected newsman in Dan Rather for faking documents. Is it possible that he can bring down an entire news organization? Unlikely, but Reuters removed all 920 photos taken by Hajj that exist in their database:

LONDON (Reuters) - Reuters withdrew all 920 photographs by a freelance Lebanese photographer from its database on Monday after an urgent review of his work showed he had altered two images from the conflict between Israel and the armed group Hizbollah.

Global Picture Editor Tom Szlukovenyi called the measure precautionary but said the fact that two of the images by photographer Adnan Hajj had been manipulated undermined trust in his entire body of work.

"There is no graver breach of Reuters standards for our photographers than the deliberate manipulation of an image," Szlukovenyi said in a statement.

"Reuters has zero tolerance for any doctoring of pictures and constantly reminds its photographers, both staff and freelance, of this strict and unalterable policy."

This is the policy when they get caught, but how many doctored photo's made it through the process and where were those who were supposed to edit them?

Reuters is spinning like a top.

Reuters is so petty that they did not list Charles' site (which seems to be down):

Hajj was not in Beirut on Monday and was not responding to calls. He told Reuters on Sunday that the image of the Israeli air strike on Beirut had dust marks which he had wanted to remove (bullshit!--ed).

Questions about the accuracy of the photograph arose after it appeared on news Web sites on Saturday.

Several blogs, including a number which accuse the media of distorted coverage of the Middle East conflict, said the photograph had been doctored.

No, it was one blog and the others took the ball and ran. Reuters was too cowardly to print that it was LGF.

Update: Ace has more photos by Hajj that look incredibly staged.

Update 2: Charles on CNN.

Update 3: Now this is spin.