newspaper

No, that is not a cynically-crafted Photoshop job. You can see the whole thing right here.

Publimetro is the Latin American branch of the Swedish Metro media company (no relation to UK's Metro). What you're looking at here is indeed their coverage of the escalating conflict on the Gaza strip plastered with a full-page ad for the newest Transformers movie. Perhaps Publimetro has the scoop on Israel's "Iron Dome" defense system (ACTUALLY AN AUTOBOT, PERHAPS IRONHIDE) or maybe it's some kind of ironic commentary on the commoditization of war... or maybe it's just a sad statement about the struggles of print media in a digital age.

Point is, let's never mix real life-threatening missiles and Michael Bay missiles ever again, shall we?

For the record, the cover story of this issue is about the World Cup. Of course:

Have you seen Angela Merkel?

The Announcer (HaMevaser), a small orthodox newspaper in Israel, has removed all female world leaders from a photo at the rally against terrorism last weekend in Paris.

Missing from the image is Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, Denmark Prime Minister Helle Thorington-Schmidt and European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

Here is the original photo:

"Including a picture of a woman into something so sacred, as far as we are concerned, it can desecrate the memory of the martyrs and not the other way around," said editor Binyamin Lipkin.

In the ultra-orthodox community showing women in photos is typically a big no-no, due to modesty concerns, and Lipkin said he was worried about what children might think.

Altering a news photo at a march focused around issues of censorship and free speech is bad enough as is, but the paper's photoshop skills aren't that great either.

Here's a closeup shot of a stray black glove, with no body attached.

Santa's doing just fine right over here!

Get a nice, big pint of fun over at After 12 this St. Patrick's Day!