Hamas Propaganda from Time Magazine?

Noah Pollak on the contentions blog called attention to the above extraordinary photograph at the TIME Magazine website which is captioned “Blackout: The Israeli embargo has left the Gaza Strip without electricity. The Palestinian Parliament was forced to meet by candlelight on Tuesday night.”

Tuesday night? It looks very much to us like there is daylight pouring into this photo in at least three areas – side windows and back door. (You can see it even better at the TIME link.) We call upon the blogosphere to examine this as another possible example of “fauxtography.” If you follow the “contentions” link above, you will find there was a considerable amount of disinformation promulgated by the mainstream media concerning the Gaza “blackout.” Pajamas Media is asking TIME for a statement concerning the validity of this photo and will report back on their response.

UPDATE (Sat., 7:21 PM EST): Stelios Varias of the Reuters Washington bureau told me that all the variable captions on the above photograph were filed by Reuters on Jan. 22. None of them contained the word “night.” The version that did therefore must have been created by TIME. –MW

UPDATE (Fri. 5:30 PM EST): Since this post went up, TIME has altered the caption on the photograph. Now it strikes a much more “symbolic” note: “Blackout: The Israeli embargo has left the Gaza Strip without electricity. To emphasize its plight the Palestinian Parliament met by candlelight on Tuesday.”