Sunday Times uses CoD image for real life story

Sunday Times uses CoD image for real life story
Not cool, Sunday Times. Not cool

The Sunday Times this week published a story about the tragic failed rescue of two hostages in Nigeria, using a Call of Duty soldier to illustrate the piece.

Contrary to what the article would have you believe, CoD's John 'Soap' MacTavish was not involved in the ill-fated rescue mission that lead to the deaths a Briton and an Italian who had been taken hostage in May.

The character's eyes have been blocked out for no good reason given than he's a fictional video game persona and therefore not under threat from any enemy troops perusing the Sunday Times over a boiled egg and soldiers.

Questions

It's not abundantly clear whether or not the Sunday Times knew the image was taken from a game and not real life, but neither option really paints the paper in the best light possible.

It's not the first time that something like this has happened; in September 2011 ITV was caught using footage from ARMA 2 in a documentary about Gaddafi and the IRA.

Ofcom ruled that ITV's fubar represented a "significant breach of audience trust".

From The Media Blog

News Editor (UK)

Former UK News Editor for TechRadar, it was a perpetual challenge among the TechRadar staff to send Kate (Twitter, Google+) a link to something interesting on the internet that she hasn't already seen. As TechRadar's News Editor (UK), she was constantly on the hunt for top news and intriguing stories to feed your gadget lust. Kate now enjoys life as a renowned music critic – her words can be found in the i Paper, Guardian, GQ, Metro, Evening Standard and Time Out, and she's also the author of 'Amy Winehouse', a biography of the soul star.