As Perry de Havilland of Samizdata writes, "take a look at this and make of it what you will", adding, "Truth is all in the editing it would seem".

When Haskell Wexler shot Medium Cool, he had no idea how just interchangeable fact and fiction could be in front of a camera, and behind an editing table.

Update: Could this be an example of Pallywood's equivalent of Industrial Light & Magic's post-production department at work? Maybe it's just my aging eyeballs, but I'd like further proof, if possible. However, it's certainly not looking good for Reuters (terrorism's favorite wire service!) in the early going.

Another Update: OK, I think I'm convinced. In this blinking close-up gif, in addition to the square white concrete building being reproduced identically, the building next to it, which has a much more complex roofline (notice the angular cupola or whatever that structure on the roof is) is also reproduced identically. That looks very much like a Photoshop copy & paste job to me--and these pro photographers agree.

Michelle Malkin examines the Reuters "photo" (sorry, just borrowing a pair of Reuters' quotation marks--they've got lots of 'em), and looks at additional Big Media Photoshoppery.

Note (8:52 PM): This post began at 1:40 PM PDT with the Pallywood video clip; I'm bumping it to the top of the Webpage because of the updates on the doctored Reuters photo, which is the much more timely news here.

Update (9:19 PM): Scroll halfway down to post #217 in this Free Republic thread, where a "Freeper" created a negative image version of the photo. It really makes the copy & paste duplication in the apex of the two clouds of "smoke" that much more obvious.

Update (9:36 PM): Ed Morrissey (as usual) makes a great observation here:

This isn't just one reporter and a producer going nuts at a network news division. This shows that Reuters has either complete incompetents as editors or that the entire British wire service has chosen one particular side in this war. Check all the links in Charles' post, and try to keep from laughing out loud at how utterly stupid Reuters considers its customers to be.

Like New Shimmer, why can't both options be equally possible? Clearly, Reuters' photo editors, whom one assumes would be up on the latest Photoshop tricks and tweaks, are incompetent on some level if they let a photo like that onto the 'Net. And personally, I'd say that these two items indicate rather clearly which side the entire British wire service has chosen.

Update (10:56 PM): Publius Pundit writes, "A special correspondent who works for Reuters sent me this photo from the series, which I believes corroborates Reuters’ story. Judge for yourself"...

Late Update (2:08 AM 8/6/06): Rightwinged.com also goes negative--that is, inverts the colors of the photo for some interesting results.

Last Update (8:18 AM 8/6/06): Picture Kill!

Details of the above dispatch from Reuters here and here. Much more coming later, in this post.

Note (4:47 PM 8/6/06): Huge detailed update now online.