Saturday, August 05, 2006

Time Stamps or even EXIF info not Proof

my post to the UK Telegraph, and I thought I would clean up a couple of typos and repost it here. The text in red is alterations to aid in clarity of parts I recognise are unclear or mistakeable. They use a webform like most and it is a bit awkward to edit for typos and/or clarity. Sorry.

I posted this already on Little green footballs about the same time another poster did and the time sequence issue isn't being pushed anymore because it cannot without co-operation from all the relevant media sources and the photographers in question, and all the media has to do to cover up is not disclose, and all the photographer has to do is lie about what time is set in his particular camera. There is no way to compel truthful revelation and there is a plausible excuse that everyone will go with, true or not, because it does cover the situation if it is true.
What time is set in each camera?
Is it fast or slow, and what time zone was the photographer in when he set the camera’s time.
America (which has 4 time zones), UK, Germany, Lebanon?
Maybe somebody’s camera was set when purchased in Hong Kong.
Without accurate information on what each camera was set to, both the accuracy and time zone, it is impossible to prove most of the accusations. Without a lot more shots from each photographer, it is not even possible to prove what time zone a particular camera was set at.
With the whole batch and some personal info on the photographers, you could likely get close. If a photog from Russia had similar shots and time stamps as Mohammed, it would be likely that he set his camera in Lebanon. Otherwise expect several hours ahead.
You would need access to enough of each photographer’s shots to pick one (mostly) identical pose and compare EXIF information from those shots.
We don't have that, and because it cannot do anything but hurt the media sources, it is extremely unlikely that they would provide the rope for a potential lynching party. Even if the media outlet is honest, they would be betting blind all their integrity upon a random stringer. They are not that stupid, even if they are honestly trying to constrain Hezbollah's propaganda. If they are not honest, the same action occurs. How do you (or anyone outside the media and the particular photographer) tell the difference?
We cannot.
Since there is a plausible excuse, and we do not have any expectation of obtaining the requisite information to backtrack this, most of the blogs pursuing this have gone on to other aspects like the abnormal # of severely handicapped children, the lack of concrete dust on those ostensibly killed in the blast/collapse, the career of "green helmet" as a mortician, "green helmet" having been in possession of a refrigerated truck serving as a temporary morgue in Tyre, the rigor mortis coloration and lividity of bodies supposedly only dead hours, and even the difference in a child's tricycle taken the day of the "rescue" and clean and shot again the next day in the same room and now the toy and whole room are covered in concrete dust as it was not earlier.
These things are capable of being examined at a remove, and evaluated and theorized upon based solely from the photos released (it would be better from the high-res photos in media hands, but it still can be done without media co-operation).
It still looks bad for media credibility as a stunt, and media frenzy, similar to Jenin.

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