Bogus Photo on Front Page of the New York Times

In the wake of an attack made by American Predator drones on a village in Pakistan where a top terrorist leader was thought to be hiding, and New York Times ran a photo it identified as:

“Pakistani men with the remains of a missile fired at a house in the Bajur tribal zone near the Afghan border.”

In reality, the photo featured an artillery shell, and not the remains of any American missile.

No U.S. forces have fired any artillery rounds anywhere near that village.

The Times has now corrected the caption.

Does this show a political bias? At first blush, it appears to be mere incompetence, but we have to wonder whether the Times editors weren’t excessively credulous toward a photo that showed children, and an old man, and might seem to vividly illustrate the fecklessness of the American military.

At a minimum, the Times editors are frightfully ignorant of matters military.