HOME / chatterbox: Gossip, speculation, and scuttlebutt about politics.

All the News That's Fit To Rint

Timothy NoahPosted Thursday, Sept. 16, 1999, at 6:43 PM ET

A Chatterbox tipster thought he'd caught the Associated Press red-handed this morning when he saw a photograph inside the New York Times' A section over the caption, "Deadline near on disarming Kosovo Albanians." The photo depicted, in shadow, a British soldier at an arms depot in Luzan examining a Kalashnikov rifle that had been turned in by the Kosovo Liberation Army. Behind the soldier was a wall illuminated by light streaming in from a window, and plainly visible on that wall was the graffito, "UCK NATO." Surely, Chatterbox reasoned, some anonymous Kosovar had expressed contempt for the peace agreement that required him to turn in his rifle, using the language of his oppressors. And just as surely, the "F" had been whited out by some enterprising photo editor in order to render it publishable in a family newspaper.

But in discussing the matter with the AP and the New York Times (both of which want you to know they have a firm policy against doctoring photographs), Chatterbox learned that UCK is actually the Albanian abbreviation for "Kosovo Liberation Army" (if you must know, it stands for Ushtrise Clirimtare te Kosoves). In other words, the photo wasn't doctored; Chatterbox just ucked up.

E-mail Timothy Noah at .

Print This ArticlePRINTEmail to a FriendE-MAILShare This ArticleRECOMMEND...Get Slate RSS FeedsRSS
Timothy Noah is a senior writer at Slate.
What did you think of this article?
Join The Fray: Our Reader Discussion Forum
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES
TODAY'S PICTURES
TODAY'S CARTOONS
TODAY'S DOONESBURY
TODAY'S VIDEO
The beauty parlor.16/091209_TP.jpg
Cartoonists' take on Wall Street.44/091209_TC.jpg
Rogue rules.87/091209_TD.jpg