4 Historic Photos Were Shamelessly Edited To Mislead The World

Awful manipulation that deceived masses for ages.

With the click of a button, photos can sway public opinion in this age where social media is more advanced than any other medium.

But what if those pictures were manipulated? The truth is photo editing software has made it easier than ever to alter images, from slight touch-ups to blatant lies.

Photos can be cropped, filtered, and even completely doctored to convey a message that may not be accurate or truthful.

It’s crucial to be aware of the possibility of manipulation as we move through this visual ecosystem and to consider the authenticity of what we see.

So, you better keep your eyes open up wide and your skepticism sharp because not everything is always as it seems.

1. Iranian Great Prophet III Ballistic Missile

In 2012, tensions between Iran and the US were at an all-time high due to the Iranian nuclear program — and amidst all this, a photo of an Iranian missile test started circulating in the media only added fuel to the fire.

The photo claimed to show a test of the Great Prophet III missile, allegedly capable of striking US bases in the region.

However, it was later proven to be fake, having been manipulated and created by combining multiple photos.

The photo of Great Prophet III caused quite a stir in the international community and resulted in an increase in oil prices.

Brent crude oil futures rose by over 1% on the day the photo was released, as investors worried that a conflict in the region could disrupt the global oil supply.

This was good for Iran because the country is a major oil producer in the region — and any impact on the oil market would be helpful.

Things worsened when the likelihood of the conflict spreading to other nations in the region increased, causing further disruptions in the oil supply.

However, the outreaching effects of the photo didn’t end there; this time, they were against Iran.

The United States of America and its allies used the photo as evidence to support their claim of Iran’s development of nuclear weapons.

This led to severe sanctions on Iran, and even when international bodies found out that the photo was fake — it was too late.

The fact that one photo caused the oil, gold and silver prices to rise to an all-time high is just bonkers — just imagine the damage it would have done if all this was for real.

2. Satellite Image Of Flight MH17

It was, back in July 2014, when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) was flying over eastern Ukraine until it was shot down, killing all 298 people on board.

Turns out, it was the Russian surface-to-air missile launched from Pro-Russian separatists — from the controlled territory in Ukraine who were responsible.

However, the Russian authorities denied having any involvement in it.

Fast forward almost four months, and the Russians were back in play — out of nowhere they randomly aired a supposedly leaked satellite image which suggested the involvement of a Ukrainian Air Force fighter jet.

But guess what? Experts quickly called it all nonsense, saying the images were nothing more than fake.

Sadly the Russians didn’t stop there and sometime later they published some new photos showing a surface to air missile launcher being positioned near the eastern border. Few days before the tragic crash.

Then, Russia’s defense ministry published some photos that supposedly showed missile launchers belonging to the Ukrainian army positioned near the eastern border in the days leading up to the crash.

However, not surprisingly an investigative journalist soon revealed that all the photos were nothing but cheap propaganda by the Russians.

It’s crazy to think that a simple photograph could be used to manipulate everything surrounding such a tragic event.

3. Removal Of Women From The Situation Room

So, we all know of the famous photograph of Obama and his team in the Situation Room during the time when the mission to kill Osama Bin Laden was underway.

However, what we don’t know is the fact that for some random reason, a Hasidic Jew newspaper decided to photoshop the two women in the room — the erased women were Hilary Clinton and Audrey Tomason.

The Brooklyn-based Di Tzeitung was one of these newspapers, and they claimed they did it to abide by Jewish modesty laws.

However, the only way of categorizing their act other than — outright misogyny.

One reason was the Hasidic religious beliefs, and another was basically that showing women in the photo would be degrading to them as if being present in a historic moment of national significance wasn’t enough of a contribution to society.

This was a historical moment for America because Osama Bin Laden was the reason America started its so-called war on terror in 2003.

And eight years later, when that very reason was being eradicated, this newspaper decided to manipulate history forever.

Just to make certain people happy and maybe sell more copies — which is not just offensive but also dangerous.

4. Altering Mugshot Our Of Racism

The famous mugshot of O.J. Simpson caused a whole lot of drama when it was used on the cover of Time and Newsweek Magazines in June of 1994.

Newsweek just used the plain old mugshot, but Time decided to alter it by making Simpson’s face look much darker, blurrier, and like he hadn’t shaved in a while.

And boy, did people get angry about it! They accused Time of trying to make Simpson look guilty.

This was a useless attempt to malign Simpson’s image for no reason other than racism.

This photograph was just like the flight photograph, which was used to manipulate things in their favor.

However, it was not long until people found out the sinister and rather stupid meaning behind the alteration of the original image.

It only highlights how effective photographs can be in swaying people’s opinions, especially when used by the mainstream press.

Final Words

While photos may be worth a thousand words, manipulated photos can be worth a million lies.

It is very easy to be confused in this age of digital age, and its better to approach these images with a crazy dose of skepticism and a critical eye because it’s very easy to make fiction appear as truth and vice versa.

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