Sunday, June 18, 2006

"Problems with images"

Following on from yesterday's post about the climate of hysteria surrounding child abuse, here's another hair-raising story, this time out of Florida and this time, a recent occurrence. A nanny was arrested and held in prison for two years after secret camera footage appeared to show her shaking a baby in her care. The baby had no injuries and the nanny has never been taken to trial or convicted. She is now suing the camera manufacturer;

In March, Broward County prosecutors said experts they had consulted concluded the footage was not reliable as evidence because its videotape was time-lapsed, meaning that the movements that appeared to be rough shaking might not have been as violent as they appeared.

Robert McKee, Muro's civil attorney, said the footage was misleading and consumers should be warned about problems with the images.


As an afterthought, the phrase "problems with images" reminded me of these TV images of Resident Doctor's Association secretary, Deborah Powell, used by the DomPost yesterday. It seems obvious the conveyance of a certain impression was intended;



The three photos on the left-right diagonal are quite distorted and reminiscent of a particular image which I will not post here. But this is a good example of the media exploiting images to suit their slant on matters.

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