By Erik Crouch.
Image credit: Xinhua.
If you’re going to doctor photos of a country’s leading politicians, at least do a good job. Xinhua’s English-language article “‘Li Keqiang: A Man Who Puts People First’” has attracted much criticism from observers who claim that a 2004 image of the now-Vice Premier (above) has been faked. Many posters noticed that the image background is nearly identical to a photo from the Guangming Daily website, and some super-observant onlookers have picked up on the fact that the image’s lighting is just horribly, horribly, wrong.
Other details to check out include:
How each man’s head blurs into the background image.
The arrestingly bright spot between the legs of the man on the right, especially when compared to space to the right of his leg.
A woman in the Guangming Daily website image, and her correspondingly blurry spot in the background of Xinhua’s shot.
Identical bricks and patterns around them.
The over-exposed, over-sharpened, and horribly placed floating head in the background.
Internet posts accusing the website of photo-manipulation have been censored, as Xinhua is apparently angry at being caught in the act. In the future, it will hopefully step-up its Photoshop skills before doctoring political propaganda.
