This morning I stepped outside to get the paper and was rather surprised to find that the front page of the Los Angeles Times was a large, eye-grabbing shot of the Iranian missile test launch of the other day.

I was surprised because I had seen the same picture midafternoon yesterday on Little Green Footballs — a quite prominent right-wing blog — and seen convincing evidence that the picture was photoshopped. [Note -- I'd link, but LGF is down at the time of this writing.] And it's not like it required much explanation — the photoshop job is rather obvious to even a cursory investigation, what with the duplicated clouds and stuff.

Leaving aside the question that nobody at Agence France-Presse or the Los Angeles Times looked at the picture very closely, discussion of the obvious photoshop job was widespread on the internet before the Times' publication deadline yesterday evening. Doesn't anyone say "stop the presses" any more? It's a little ignominious to be taken in by an Iranian military propaganda op — and one considerably less skillful than they'd get from some of Popehat's forum members.

Last 5 posts by Ken

• Anatomy Of A Scam Investigation, Chapter Ten - February 5th, 2012
• Marc Stephens Threatens Me Some More - February 3rd, 2012
• Now I Belong To The Ages - January 31st, 2012
• The Road to Popehat: The Oracle At Popehat Edition - January 27th, 2012
• Step Right Up For The Thursday Censorious Asshat Roundup - January 26th, 2012