DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU SEE

This picture has been bothering me a lot since it was posted by @richardbarrow on Twitter yesterday afternoon. 

As you can see, the television reporter is standing in water outside the Grand Palace in Bangkok. But look closer and you'll see dry land only metres away. No doubt the audience seeing the subsequent report will only see the flooding in the background.

In my opinion this reporter is breaking the most important rule in journalism - to report the truth. What viewers saw was not the entire picture. 

I'd love to know which television station this reporter works for, and indeed what the editor would say when presented with this image. No doubt the report was dramatic - floods lapping at the walls of one of Bangkok's tourist icons - but is that really what was happening at the time?

It just goes to show you shouldn't believe everything you see - or read for that matter.

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ICONIC IMAGES OF THE FLOODS

Today's front page of The Straits Times in Singapore has what I consider to be one of the most iconic images to emerge so far from the floods which are gripping parts of Bangkok right now.

But as a former press photographer I cannot help feeling this image looks a bit staged. The monk looks like he's been asked to stand in the water - and if you look closer you can see the water doesn't extend all the way to the walls of the Grand Palace. Surely the monk would not need to pass through the water ordinarily? That said, I have no evidence to suggest the situation has been manipulated.

As for the front page headline and associated government advice for Singaporeans to leave Bangkok while the main international airport remains open - it does smack of a certain degree of sensationalism. 

Bangkok and the floods have been dominating the news agenda in Singapore for more than a week now - and that only looks set to continue.

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FLOOD ON THE FRONT PAGES

Images from Bangkok once again made the front pages of a number of regional newspapers during the past weekend.

The Straits Times in Singapore lead with graphic images from the Thai capital on Saturday and Sunday, while newspapers in Malaysia and Indonesia also opted to run with front page stories and images depicting the flooding in Bangkok.

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KUDOS TO THE NATION ..

.. for allowing anyone affected by the Thailand flooding to download the latest copies of its newspaper as a PDF edition.

When people are searching for news in all its forms then any initiative like this is surely a welcome one.

On the down side the files take a long time to download and, one would guess, that downloading today's copy of The Nation isn't going to be high on the list of things to do when water is lapping at the door.

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WHILE STOCKS LAST ..

Seeing these three words associated with a magazine subscription sales campaign always make me laugh. And I've seen two in the last couple of weeks.

"Hurry, subscribe now while stocks last .."

As if the publisher is going to turn away cash from a potential subscriber saying "I'm sorry, we're run out." 

Think about it.

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