Tubularsock has found the Associated Press report today shocking!
News photos digitally altered?
What will they think of next?
The images in question were released through the government-run Estudios Revolucion, an entity that distributes photos of Cuba’s top leadership.
“We have concluded that a number of official photographs of Fidel Castro were manipulated” stated AP vice president and director of photography Santiago Lyon.
“Removing elements from a photograph is entirely unacceptable and is in clear violation of AP’s standards unless we do it” Santiago Lyon did not say.
Now Tubularsock is a firm believer that under AP standards, photos must depict reality and cannot be manipulated to add or subtract elements that alter that reality. But the nature of reality is relative and one’s “reality” is not necessarily the same as the reality of another.
The photos under question show clearly in the original, high-resolution image files a thin wire snaking into Fidel Castro’s ear that was missing from the altered photo released through Estudios Revolucion.
Tubularsock wants to make it perfectly clear that ALL PHOTOGRAPHS within the pages of Tubularsock, “. . . first hand coverage, second hand news” are ALL original photos taken by Tubularsock himself with a standard flash camera used in the “good ol’ days” when the TRUTH of reality was real.
TRUST ME!
Tubularsock 
Oh, I trust YOU alright, sitting in your top floor corner office in your underground bunker overlooking Washington, D.C. from Oakland, CA.. LMAO!! Not to mention, you have been ‘pictured’ on a date with Kim Kartrashcan, you’ve been on the cover of People magazine. You were pictured helping the FLOTUS celebrate her 50th birthday. You have been in the ‘war’ room surrounded by Despot Obadroner and the rest of the warmongers. You have been installed at the Vatican and on the cover of Time magazine. You are now ‘pictured’ as the Statue of Liberty. Shall I continue? Mr. “Worships at the Digital ‘Alter’,” himself??? You, Dear Tube, are a lovable mess!! And we would not have you ANY other way!!! Strut your ‘altered digital reality’ man!! LOL!
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Hmmmm …….. now that you put it that way Shelby, Tubularsock’s reality is very busy. How can you be two places at once when you’re not anyplace at all? Thanks for your comment
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It is quite obvious to me that if you are Tubularsock, you can be ANY place at ANY given moment in time, even the same place at the same time! Let’s just put it this way, YOU are everywhere at once! There, cleared that up! And in fact, I do recall reading on another post that we should all just “accept Tubularsock as our ‘Lord and ‘savior’ because Tubularsock is fucking GOD!” LMAO!!! Remember that? Oh omnipresent one!
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What is true IS true, Shelby. Being omnipresent isn’t what its cracked up to be. Limited time off and some heavy shit you have to deal with. And on top of everything people are stupid! Man, if I was going to create the world again I’d leave the people out of the mix.
I was just trying to be low profile but you caught me again.
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Wonderful. So the Associated Press has standards for the quality and integrity of images? I can’t tell by reading if they have comparable rules for news stories.
Tubularsock – You know, it’s funny, but I do kind of trust you, almost, in a guarded, strangely oblique way. At least I did, until you said “trust me”. It’s irrational, but even in jest, that always trips my suspicious side. Is there a term for the fear of being too gullible?I never heard of one, but there seems to be an official phobia for everything else, including ‘phobophobia’ — the excessive fear of having or developing a phobia. No shit — a self-fulfilling phobia.
Ooh, the nature of reality … Sigh. No wonder I never even considered majoring in philosophy. Picasso thought “everything you can imagine is real”, though I rather hope he was wrong. Mostly, I take the simple approach. If it hurts when I stub my toe on it, I adopt as a working hypothesis that the damn thing is real enough. Then I generally swear and kick it out of my way, thus testing said hypothesis … and often stubbing another toe. Maybe that’s why they say reality bites?
But what the hell, if other people can believe in fifty-four separate sorts of nonsense before breakfast, maybe I can take one of those leaps of faith too. I may have to start with baby steps though. I … do … believe … in … gravity. Okay, that wasn’t so hard. Next – maybe imaginary numbers? Gotta love people who can see that things like the square root of negative 1 are desperately needed, and even beautiful. – Linda
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Linda. Thank you so much for your comment.
The first item of business is your fear of trust. (“kind of trust you, almost, in a guarded, strangely oblique way”)
Now that shows a great deal of intelligence if you ask Tubularsock, he has been known to lie to himself on occasion in an oblique sort of a way. Tubularsock does realize that using the term “Trust Me” does bring up red flags and is willing to risk that in his quest for TRUTH!
(“Is there a term for the fear of being too gullible?”) Yes, calling oneself a Democrat!
Yeah ……. good ol’ reality. Picasso’s imagination becoming real is rather scary I have to admit. But I just think that Cubism was created to scare the squares.
Tubularsock is with you on the stubbing your toe business ……. that works for me but gravity, not so much. It tends to hold you down if you ask me.
When it gets to theoretical math I have to respect that approach to the working world. They get a job for coming up with THEORIES of how things work with FORMULAS that they conjure up in their heads and they get paid for it. Tubularsock calls that the square root of the positive! Now THAT is beautiful, Linda!
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I can always count on Tubularsock for a good laugh. Good stuff as usual Tube.
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Thank you H3nry. It does the heart good to laugh.
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