Update on the Faked Fidel Castro Photos
Ever since I saw the four photos released today in Cuba that show Fidel Castro alive and recovering and are alleged to have been taken yesterday — right down to the hostage-like photo of Fidel holding up a newspaper to display the headline and pinpoint the date — several things have been bothering me.
And one of them has definitely…bugged me. But more on that below the fold.
Mis-match of red logo and title color in actual Saturday edition of Cuba newspaper Granma
and black logo and title in newspaper Castro is shown holding in an 80th birthday photo
First, notice in the photo above that the Granma newspaper that Fidel Castro is shown displaying has a black logo and a black headline. The problem is that Granma uses a bright red logo, and often uses color in other places on the front page.
The second photo, to the right, shows the actual front page of yesterday’s Granma, with a red logo and a bright red headline.
Why the discrepancy?
Perhaps the copied red text did not show up as well in the photo when Photoshopped onto the newspaper Fidel was actually holding in this picture. Perhaps the red color of the headline and logo were more difficult to match in with Fidel’s hand at the top where his thumb was overlapping the page. Perhaps the Cuban government hired freelancer Adnan Hajj to prepare the photo.
I don’t know why they would have changed the color of the headline and logo. I only know that the color is different from that in yesterday’s actual edition of the newspaper.
Part two of the problem with the newspaper. Even if the color of the headline and logo were explainable, the size of the Cuban newspaper is not the same as the size of the newspaper Castro is shown holding.
Size mis-match of Granma newspaper and newspaper Castro shown holding in photo.
Overlay shows Granma to be wider and shorter than newspaper Castro holding
In the photo above, the actual Granma newspaper frontpage from Saturday, August 12, 2006 is overlaid on the photo released today purportedly showing Fidel Castro holding the same edition of the newspaper. The overlay is partially transparent to show the underlying Castro image.
Note that the black Granma logo on the Castro photo matches the red Granma logo overlaid on it in size. Note that the picture of Castro illustrating the story matches in size in both the birthday photo and the overlay photo (although they are slightly out of register). Note also that the text columns at the bottom of the newspaper page in the overlay match in height and width the text columns in the paper Castro is show holding.
Now notice the headline. In the overlay, it stretches far beyond the width of the newspaper page that Castro is holding. The color is not the only thing that is different. The headline on the newspaper Castro is holding has been reduced in size so that it will fit.
The columns of text which end above Castro’s right hand, holding the bottom of the newspaper, appear to be at the actual bottom of the page on the real Granma front page. This would explain the large amount of white space at the bottom of the newspaper in the birthday photo.
The hands of the woman holding the real Granma newspaper, when overlaid on the Castro birthday photo, also appear quite large in comparison to Castro’s hands. This also indicates that parts of the front page of Granma were enlarged and manipulated in order to fit the size of the newspaper Castro was holding in the photo.
That isn’t all.
The story continues on the next page.
The other thing that has been nagging at the back of my mind was the clothing that Castro was wearing in these photos. Robert Hahn at Redstate.com pointed out that Fidel was seen wearing that same Adidas outfit back in 2002 when former president Jimmy Carter visited the island nation and threw out the first pitch in a Cuban baseball game.
Fidel Castro in 2002 wearing the Adidas jacket shown in the August 13, 2006, birthday photos
The Adidas jacket appears to have weathered the more than four years since then remarkably well. In fact, the jacket Castro is wearing in the photos released today appears just as new as the one in the photos taken back in 2002.
Perhaps he doesn’t wear it very often. Or perhaps he takes exceptionally good care of it. Or possibly he liked the jacket so much that he bought a duplicate — or even has a closet full of them.
Or perhaps there is a simpler explanation and the photo alleged to have been taken yesterday, which has a demonstrably false headline photoshopped onto it, was part of a photo series taken back in 2002.
That would also explain why Castro looks younger in the photos released today than in ones taken last month. Usually, stomach surgery and prolonged internal bleeding would be expected to make a person look somewhat worse for wear than Castro appears today.
But why would a photo of Fidel Castro have been taken back in 2002 that showed him holding up a newspaper? What purpose would that have served?
Well, that is one of the things that had been “bugging” me, and thanks to the nudge from Robert Hahn reminding me of when Castro was last seen in Adidas, I finally remembered something that may be significant.
A few months after the Carter visit to Cuba, in December of 2002, Fidel Castro suddenly left a session of the National Assembly, Cuba’s parliament, due to illness from an injury to his leg. He was not seen again in public for over a week.
The temporary disappearance of Castro came a year and a half after Castro’s public collapse in late June of 2001 during a live televised speech before a crowd of tens of thousands of people — an event that stunned the Cuban people and put an end to talk of his legendary stamina and invicibility. Rumors that he was near death, or had indeed already died, were rampant.
Then, as now, he communicated through a letter published in Granma, explaining that an insect bite on his leg had become infected and doctors had ordered him to bed.
“It was my duty to protect my beloved left leg,” he wrote. “With it, I have practiced many sports, including soccer, have run in races, jumped, swam, climbed mountains. …”
“It had never betrayed me,” Castro continued, “I couldn’t betray it now.”
The three days of bed rest initially prescribed streched into a week as the infection did not clear up. As the rumors, and the unrest, mounted, perhaps a series of photos were taken to demonstrate that Fidel was alive and well. Perhaps those photos were never used because he began to recover and was able to make a public appearance.
Perhaps the photos were put aside.
Perhaps now, in a somewhat similar circumstance, the photos were remembered and hastily prepared to again calm the population and reassure them that life after Castro is still something for the future and not something to worry about now.
Of course, if they had to use old pictures, poorly altered as shown above, the implications for Castro’s actual condition are fairly obvious.
There is no reason to issue fake photographs of Fidel Castro unless real photographs of him are impossible to obtain.
Real photographs of him alive and well, at least.
More as news develops.
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Tags: cuba, fidel castro
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Ornois
August 14th, 2006 00:25
That Fidel pic?
Ishtar is safe. The pics are fake fake fake!…
David
August 14th, 2006 02:55
The picture is fake… two things to think about…
1) Picture may not from 2002, but more recent. I could see this picture taken this year. When and Why you say? During the WBC (Spring 2006). He’d be proud of their sucesses. I could picture Castro holding up a headling like “Cuba Wins vs _____ ” or something. I did a cursory search, but you’d have to have the originals of Granma and check out the front page and the sports sections. Only damper is that in my search I did find Castro and Raul in a team photo. Castro wore the ‘Green General’ outfit for the team photo. Not the Cuba jacket.
2) The Granma & the White Border.
Since when is there so much white border around the front page like that? It’s a waste. I don’t have any of the back issues except this one I found on the net. http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/571.cfm
That is using a lot more of the surface area.
If I’m right; this is the only one? They knew they wanted to photoshop this around so they made this issue with the uber thick white border around the paper. Only back Issues of present Granma can confirm! Anyone have last weeks, etc?
David
August 14th, 2006 03:02
Hmmm maybe knock off my 1) comment.
The WBC Cuban team has a different uniform in 2006 than 2002. He might have worn the 2002 one… but you’d think you’d update.
General WBC Uniform
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2006/marzo/lun20/13final.html
Castro with team (shows General Outfit… one guy has their jacket on)
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2006/marzo/lun6/11recibe.html
PCH
August 14th, 2006 10:02
Dear all,
I think, the newspaper in the hand of Fidel is a previous-day-photocopy. Thats why the size and a colours are different. There are more simple answers than a conspiracy theory
Miles
August 14th, 2006 10:06
If you look carefully, there is a staple in the upper-left corner of the page, which would explain the paper’s size difference. My bet is that he’s holding a master set (printed either directly from Granma’s computers, or from the galleys that were used to make the plates).
Miles
dwpittelli
August 14th, 2006 18:12
I think there is consensus that Castro was reading a stapled page proof, and not the normal printed Granma. The question is what does that mean?
Does anyone here read or have access to printed Granma?
It seems to me there are some key questions which would provide statistical evidence for whether this photo is, as presented, a recent one of Castro holding a late proof, or instead more than a few weeks (even months) old:
1) Does Granma often print a section like this? What portion of Granma covers are readily datable from headline or photo, and what portion are vague and could be set up well ahead of time for such a (fraudulent) dating purpose?
2) Does Granma almost always have color on the front of such sections? Was the photo supposed to be obviously a B&W proof, or did someone think it would actually be seen as Castro holding a printed copy? (I would guess the former, since the latter really requires gross incompetence.)
3) If the photo was to depict Castro with a printed Granma, presumably the printed one was supposed to be in B&W (assuming minimal competence). Did Granma “happen” to print color this time when the plan was for B&W in order to complete the ruse? This would say something about the political position of Granma’s leader(s). I do not know who controls Granma, presumably of course one or more Party members.
Jeffrey
August 14th, 2006 19:13
The Granma masthead is always printed in color (red). Headlines and other parts of the front page are often in color as well.
Granma is the official Cuban Communist Party newspaper. It is state controlled.
Did you look at the overlay photo in ths article?
That is an overlay of the same Granma front page Castro is purportedly holding up. The headline and masthead are red.
Also — and fairly conclusive evidence that what Castro is holding cannot simply be a B%W “proof” copy of the newspaper — are the following points shown in the overlay photo:
1. The masthead can be lined up and is the same size, although the color differs.
2. The photo of Castro on the front page lines up exactly in terms of size as well, and at the same magnification factor as needed to line up the masthead. (The photo is slightly out of register, however, when the masthead is lined up. Evidence that the front page was digitally put on the released Castro photo.)
3. The columns of text below the Castro photo on the front page line up and are the same size as well.
4. What does *not* line up is the headline. When you try to put it on the faked newspaper, the headline stretches considerably past the width of the newspaper page. That means that the headline had to be digitally reduced.
It is illogical to assume that a proof copy of a newspaper would have a headline that was digitally reduced. You would either reduce everything so that it would fit on the page in reduced size, or you would allow the healine to over-run the edge of the page and view the rest of the text and graphics at full size.
The fact that the headline does not match up makes it impossible to have been a photocopy of a real Granma, or a proof copy, or a master set, or any other benign explanation.
It is a deliberate fake.
I’m not certain if the “staple” at the top of the page is an actual staple or if it is something left over on the print that was improperly erased off of the real newspaper page before the Granma front page was pasted on digitally.
And yes, it is sloppy work. It might come from a mind-set of usually not being questioned and therefore not worrying about details.
My main question is why such a clumsy fake was put out. Something apparently made it seem necessary to the people responsible for it — and it has all of the signs of a hasty job that wasn’t thought through or checked enough.
There is something going on in Cuba behind the scenes that made the risk of issuing a fake worth taking.
violent_k
August 15th, 2006 03:14
I have been sent proofs from newspapers for ads. Sometimes they are enlarged to show detail. Sometimes they are reduced to fit a normal sized sheet of paper. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that Castro wanted to see and approve the article and picture. I would think they sent him a rough mock-up of the front page. After he approved the picture and exact text, the layout people did their job and made it fit the page size they were working with.
Newspaper editor
August 15th, 2006 06:00
Perhaps the photos are fake, but the reason state is not proof of this. Castro is obviously holding a print-proof of the Granma, rather than the Granma itself.
All newspapers pass via this step in being produced.
Sorry to bring the bad news, but I know what I am talking about.
Jeffrey
August 15th, 2006 12:53
“violent_k” — using the email address “none@none.com” — that combination inspires little confidence in me that you are connected with advertising or with the newspaper industry or known anything how newspapers are proofed or mocked up.
And as a matter of fact, a job I had a few years ago involved advertising and I’ve actually seen newspaper proofs. They *never* included a full-sized mockup of the page with the headline reduced to fit. That would have been an absurd waste of money and time on something that was basically a quick throw-away.
Approval of a story happens long before a mockup is made. It happens based on the copy that is written, not on how things will look once it is printed. If you are trying to get approval for how something looks — then you deliver an exact copy.
Jeffrey
August 15th, 2006 13:04
“Newspaper editor” — yes, all papers do pass through a proof stage prior to printing. As mentioned above, I’ve actually seen newspaper proofs.
Newspaper proofs do not have everything on the page reproduced full size and then have the headline — too large to fit the page at that resolution — digitally reduced to fit on the page. That isn’t a proof. That is an altered copy.
Newspaper proofs are either full size exact copies printed on separate full-sived (or sometimes oversized) sheets of paper, or the whole page is digitally reduced to fit on a smaller sheet of paper for convenience and expense.
In either case, they do not include a full-sized replica of the page with the headline separately reduced to fit.
Occam’s Razor — if Granma sent a “proof,” why send it on a paper size that Granma doesn’t use? A proof on 11″x22″ paper (if that is available in Cuba) would have been shrunk digitally to fit on the page. A proof on newsprint would have used the newsprint at hand, i.e., the same size newspaper that Granma prints on.
By the way, I would have more confidence in your claimed credential as a “newspaper editor” if you were not using a hotmail address and posting anonymously.