Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs falls for fauxtography!

The photo Johnson ran

The real photo

Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs, in his attempt to portray the German anti-jihad group Pro-Köln as neo-Nazi and to smear me in the process (paste in the link to get around his block), has fallen for the same Photoshop techniques that he has unmasked when Leftists and jihadists use them in the mainstream media.

The top photo shows Vlaams Belang's Filip Dewinter with Pro-Köln's Markus Beisicht in front of what appears to be a neo-Nazi demonstration. (Actually the banners are from Antifa, Antifascistische Aktion, a violent Leftist group.) That's the photo Johnson ran. The only problem? It's a fake. The second photo is the real one: Dewinter and Beisicht on the roof of the Flemish Parliament in Brussels.

How much can you trust Charles Johnson's information? Here are just a few things he has gotten wrong:

1. I have not committed to speak in Cologne.

2. Manfred Rouhs, a Pro-Köln member of the city council, is not a neo-Nazi. Here is a statement from Rouhs:

"Our growing reputation in the middle of society has also made grow the hatred of dhimmi parties and left wing groups against Pro-Köln. We are democratic patriots, strictly defending our constitution and the freedom of speech and expression.
We are also against the danger of Islamization, which includes the political fight for our Judeo-Christian heritage. We defend our Jewish people against the growing antisemitism of Muslim immigrants in Germany. We also know that in the Near East conflict the State of Israel is confronted with a much more powerful hatred and antisemitism from the Arab states. In this situation all democrats have to support the right to exist and the right to self-defense for the State of Israel, which is an outpost in the conflict with the Islamist threat. Our sympathies as a German civil rights group in this case are clear -- although as a regional anti-Islamization group we naturally do not make an active foreign policy.

Our main objective is the political opposition against the Islamization of Cologne and the mass immigration of Muslims to Germany and our home-state North Rhine-Westphalia. For this we are campaigning with our friends from all over Germany, Europe and the USA."

3. Markus Wiener of Pro-Köln sends this information:

The German Neonazi-Szene attacked Pro-Köln as "Zionists" and "men of the system." The prominent German neo-Nazi party NPD attacked Pro-Köln also, declaring the group to be their "main enemy." Pro-Köln has no neo-Nazis in leading positions or even as members. The real neo-Nazis in Germany hate them because of their positive relationship to Jews, Western immigrants, democracy and human rights. Examples here and here. Pro-Köln has many Jewish members, including one of its officers, Michael Kucherov.

How much can you trust Charles Johnson's information? About as much as you can trust that top photo.

In case the faked photo disappears down the LGF memory hole, no worries: here's a screenshot.

Oh, and Mr. Johnson, that Perez Hilton microphone photo? It's a fake too.

UPDATE: Johnson the fauxtography expert is claiming that he can't tell which picture is the original, despite the fact that it looks as if someone took a bite out of Dewinter's right shoulder in the photo he ran. And he claims that it doesn't matter that his photo was faked. This is essentially saying that his Photoshopped picture is fake but accurate. Charles Johnson has become Dan Rather.

SECOND UPDATE: Michelle Malkin found Johnson's spectacular fauxtography flameout Buzzworthy. Thanks, Michelle!

THIRD UPDATE: Johnson threatens Michelle Malkin over her link above. Can decent people still stand by this disingenuous thug? I don't see how.

FOURTH UPDATE: The utterly discredited Johnson, desperate to make some of his Nazi libel against me stick, grasps at straws in a bookstore. Just one problem: Johnson's "neo-Nazi bookstore" sells Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore, as well as Samuel Huntington and Norman Finkelstein. Imagine how surprised Chomsky and Moore will be when they find out they are neo-Nazis!

Why does anyone still believe this scurrilous lying creep? He is reading tea leaves to support erroneous judgments he has made, instead of admitting he was wrong, and I ask you: what reveals more about a person? Is it what he actually says and does, or who he stands with in photos, who other people get to appear in videos with him, and what is carried in a bookstore? Borders carries Mein Kampf; is Borders therefore Nazi? If Charles Johnson really thinks I am a neo-Nazi sympathizer or a racist, let him produce even one line that I have written to support such a view. Otherwise every person of good will should see his relentless and unprincipled smear campaign for what it is.

FIFTH UPDATE: Just to be completely clear: contrary to Johnson's claims, I will not be attending this conference in Cologne.

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