***UPDATE 8/19/06 9:31pm ET - EMAIL REPLY FROM THE TIMES***
FINALLY, I got an email reply from the Times about this after emailing some specific people. Looks like they passed it off to someone else, because the reply I got was from a name I didn't email. The case isn't closed by any means, but now we have a dialogue going. Here's what NY Times staffer Seth Carlson said:

(note: Seth didn't know which photo we're talking about because I didn't include the link in my emails to the Times, for fear of setting off a spam filter)

Randy,

Are you referring to this image? It's the only Hicks photo of a Tibnine hospital that I can find on the site.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/world/middleeast/01scene.html?ex=1156132800&en=71a6dfdf1f535cbe&ei=5070

I can assure you that no photograph that appears on nytimes.com or in the printed paper is altered before publication.

If it's a different photograph that concerns you, please send me the link. Thanks.

Seth Carlson
nytimes.com

To which I replied:

Seth,

Thanks for the quick reply.

I respect that the company line is that no photos are altered before publication, and that you truly believe this, but let's be real? We've all seen the staged images, and the "body" of the man who was obviously posing who had been a rescue worker only moments before. I know you guys got out of that one with the "imprecise" caption excuse. But there is no excuse that will work for this other one:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2006/07/25/world/200607725_LEBA_SLIDESHOW_4.html

Look at the black man's head in the bottom right. Crop and zoom in if need be, but you can clearly see that his head is pasted over the head of a woman in a headscarf. You can see the headscarf all around the back and on top of where his head is pasted. The tan cloth with writing over his/her right shoulder appears that it is photoshopped in as well.

I'm not calling "bias" (in this instance) because I don't understand what the motivation would be for photoshopping this, I don't see any agenda that it helps further, but it is clearly photoshopped. If the Times would like to be a paper of record and hold any credibility, swift and decisive action must be taken against whoever is responsible, regardless of why it was done.

While I don't think there is any logical explanation for this I'll be interested to hear what you have to say about it. I would also be interested to know if you would agree that whoever is responsible for this should be fired immediately. I don't know if this was done by Tyler Hicks, or by a photo editor, but whoever is responsible should no longer be working at the Times, and a VERY public apology should be made, especially as this comes amid the Reuters/Hajj scandal (which you may or may not be aware went way deeper than what the mainstream news covered).

Thank you again for your reply, and I look forward to you next one. Please don't attempt to stealthily remove the image without any public apology or acknowledgment.

Thanks,
~Randy

So, now it's a waiting game to see what Seth has to say. My only fear is that the Times with try to quietly remove the photo from the internet. If this happens, I'm going to need your help to expose this. I have the screen captured image and we'll have to come up with a way to get this on at least Fox News.

(/end update 8/19/06 9:31pm ET.... original post below)

****SCROLL FOR UPDATES - EVERYONE WEIGHS IN****

When will the MSM hire some competent editors and honest photoshoppers photographers so us bloggers can get some sleep!?

LGF has presented us with yet another, shall we say odd, Tyler Hicks photo from the NY Times. Before I get to that though, I've got to mention that the blogosphere scored a victory forcing a halfassed correction out of the NY Times for yesterday's scandal.

You might remember from yesterday's coverage that Tyler Hicks was the fauxtographer who took the photos of of a man running all over rubble and later as a dead body amid the rubble. After seeing that NPR labeled the same photo as a man who had fallen down (rather than at body like the Times), I assumed that the people at fault were those who got production credits for the Times' slideshow, so I took back my rushed call for Hicks's head. Well, at least the Times was forced to issue a..... um... correction (?), of which Michelle Malkin has details.

A picture caption with an audio slide show on July 27 about an Israeli attack on a building in Tyre, Lebanon, imprecisely described the situation in the picture. The man pictured, who had been seen in previous images appearing to assist with the rescue effort, was injured during that rescue effort, not during the initial attack, and was not killed.

Riiiiight.

Anyway, on to today's story, check out this Tyler Hicks photo via the NY Times. (click image for full size, or follow NY Times link until they inevitably take it down)

The thought is that the black guy in the bottom right corner isn't real. It appears that his face may be crudely photoshopped on to someone else's body, that may or may not be a woman (I'm begining to think more and more that it's a woman, but I'll get to that in a minute). Check out the blown up version of the head that LGF added to help us make up our own minds:

The first thought is "oh crap, busted again!" when you see the back of someone else's head emerging from the back of the black man's head. But for some reason Allah thinks there's nothing here. He even points to Daily Mail photo with an indistinguishable man in the background that he thinks is the same black man. First of all, I'm not sure how that would prove the photo real anyway, but most importantly, how can you make out anything about the man in the background. I wouldn't say anything about background man is 100% but from what you can see he appears to be a lighter skinned Arab man with a beard. Check it out folks, am I right? (*MID-POST UPDATE* - It appears Allah is less convinced it's real, but won't buy it until we get a confession.)

Still, Allah's skepticism did get to me where I forced myself to question the Times' image further. For a minute I thought maybe that weird different color head emerging out of the back of his head was a bandage or something, possibly covering an injury caused by another evil Israeli civilian massacre. But then I began to think about LGF's suggestion that the body might be that of a woman. on closer inspection it appears that it is a woman with a tight headscarf on, which explains the tight cloth all around his neck and the different color head protruding from the back of his head.

I bolster my believe that what you see coming out of the back of the mans head is really a woman's headscarf by creating the following negative image of LGF's blown up image. No smoking gun, but interesting. Notice that the cloth on the neck looks to be the same color as the back of the head?

I know everyone is afraid of taking this too far and jumping the gun, but I believe that this is undoubtedly a photoshop. Just look at it, it's almost as bad as a Hajj job! I won't again call for Hicks's firing (yet), because I don't know who shopped the fauxto yet, but heads need to roll at the Old Gray Lady this time.

****UPDATE****

Codemite breaks it down with excellent photographic analysis. Seems more and more clear, to me, that this is a photoshop.

Rusty gives his take, and mocks with his own PS.

Malkin makes mention, but doesn't go out on any limbs.

*****BONUS*****
The first photo in the NY Times slideshow containing the above photoshop, was taken by none other than our old pal Adnan Hajj. Not surprisingly the Times doesn't have the integrity to purge all of his images. I have much more about this image later as I have it in a foreign publication with much brighter colors, etc. But I dont' want to tip my hand on anything yet.

***UPDATE***
The photoshopped image is also featured in this NY Times story.

Others:
Old War Dogs, Iowa Voice, TexasXtreme, Pillage Idiot