Title: ABC News Republishes Fauxtograph - Update: Not Faked After All?
Time/date: Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 9:34:10 am

Apparently ABC News didn’t get the memo that a recent photograph from North Korea featuring Kim Jong-Il was a probable fake, because they’re publishing another version of it again today.

Here’s an article at the London Times about this piece of apparent fauxtography: Photoshop failure in Kim Jong Il image?

A closeup of the area, in which you can see that the shadow cast by Kim Jong-Il’s legs is at a different angle from the other shadows, and a dark line that runs the length of the white stair-step mysteriously vanishes behind him.

(Hat tip: Naso Tang.)

UPDATE at 12/18/08 10:37:05 am:

There seem to be several different photos floating around with a similar setting:

The original fauxtograph.

A more recent one.

A larger version of the ABC News photo.

All are missing the dark line on the stair-step, only behind Kim Jong-Il.

UPDATE at 12/18/08 11:26:21 am:

ABC News has removed the photo from their article.

UPDATE at 12/18/08 12:18:10 pm:

Hold the presses! Zombie discovered another picture of one of these Kim Jong-Il photo ops that suggests these images are not faked after all: Getty Images - An undated picture, releaed from Korean.

In this picture you can see that the middle section of this “reviewing stand” is actually lacking that dark line.