| | The story had happy ending in that the professor did get out of Iran. We should all be so fortunate when our time comes. Gen. David Petraeus might have a word to add. We live in a "panopticon society." It is true that the universality of internet-accessible cameras does have some potential for all of us. Corralling the government, of course, is always the problem.
As for the mix-up, it is unfortunately true that mainstream media is so fast-paced that fact-checking often is sacrificed. I do question whether and to what extent corrections appeared in print. Usually, they go in a small box on page 3 in print, but with video and radio, there is not formal place for them: they just take precious airtime. I just point out that more retractions and corrections might have appeared than she knew of, even in mainstream print.
The famous case of the two Will Wests at Leavenworth in 1903 comes to mind. What I find interesting about that Snopes link is the number of people who casually claim that the two pictures look different; how could Will West think the other was his? Well, we grew up playing games to spot the differences - and now to find Elmo - and in 1903 photography was still new. It is also famous that the Jukes-Kallikaks photographs (1912) were to our eyes obviously retouched. Still and all, there was one time, I was working with another security officer who was physically similar to me. We were both on camera from behind at the same time and when he moved, I got that feeling. Just to say...
That her picture went viral is a consequence of the Internet. Once out there, no means exist to remove it. And perhaps that is best, as her story, also, is now unretrievably linked to all those others.
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