Is The Tale Of The Monster Hog Just A Cock-And-Bull Story?

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: In The News

(AP)

By now, you've surely heard the tale of the 11-year-old boy, the three-hour chase, and the biggest hog you ever saw. CBSNews.com, along with seemingly every other media outlet in the known universe, ran the story of Jamison Stone's successful bagging of the allegedly 1,051 pound monstrosity pictured above.

And now: Scandal! Well, sorta. A Web site called "Stinky Journalism" is calling the photos that appeared in media outlets "obvious fakes, as our in-house photo experts and an NYU physicist attest." (The Stinky Journalism site seems to be down, so we're linking to Deadspin's post on the incident. They got a statement from Stinky J. off a message board.) For specifics, check out Fox News' piece on the dustup, as well as the Stone family's response to the haters.

To try to get to the bottom of this pressing issue, I've called in James Morris, CBSNews.com senior designer and the man behind one of my favorite Public Eye posts ever. Here's his analysis:

There are a few quite simple tricks for telling if a picture has been photoshopped. The most simple of these: if part of one image was enlarged, or brought in from a second photo, there would be tell-tale pixelation (jagged or soft areas) in the photo when it is blown up to great detail. When inspected, this picture didn't show any evidence of basic manipulation as far as I can tell. I think the picture is misleading though, for two, less sinister reasons:

1. The kid is almost certainly kneeling in the picture. It appears at first that he is standing and leaning on the hog, when in fact I suspect he is leaning on his knee, which you can just make out below his elbow. When one first considers it, the hog looks almost prehistoric because the boy seems to be standing; when one realizes he is probably kneeling, it merely looks huge.

2. A simple optical trick called 'forced perspective' seems to be at work here. This technique was used in many older films, before special effects, to make things appear larger or smaller than they naturally are. It was used recently in Peter Jackson Lord Of The Rings movies to make the hobbit actors appear 3 feet tall. (Here is an in depth explanation of how it works.) Essentially, in a case like this, it involves filming Object A some distance behind Object B. Using basic composition and depth of field manipulation, you appear to collapse the distance between them, making them appear to be the same distance from the lens.

The family claims the hog was 9'4" from snout to rump, and that the kid is 5'5". Additional photos on their site, monsterpig.com, seem to confirm this. The image below illustrates what a 5'5" boy would look like if he was standing next to, rather than behind, the hog. Based on the boy's size in the photo relative to the illustration, I would guess he is kneeling at least a couple of yards behind the hog. Maybe even kneeling on some raised ground or a tree stump. Our mind naturally normalizes the boy's height, which tricks us into thinking the hog is bigger than it is.

My verdict: The hog is clearly huge, just not quite as huge as it appears in the famous photo. I expect the illusion was mostly unintentional on the part of the photographer, at least beyond the usual efforts we all make to compose our everyday snapshots to make ourselves appear a bit more dramatic or flattering.
(CBS/AP)

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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by skeezix06 June 2, 2007 9:30 PM EDT: Truly a story of major importance...; Reply to this comment


by parrotbill-2009 June 2, 2007 6:38 AM EDT: Now a days if people don't belive what they see in a photo, they start crying "Photo Shop" ans say there is no way. The same as folks didn't believe our story of almost hitting a hog this very size up on a mountain road in the Ozarks. When we told folks it took up the whole 2 lane dirt road, was about 10 feet long and it's back stood over a foot taller than the hood of a 1978 Chevy pickup truck, they laughed at us. Well that hog was a Polen Hog with the white stripe around the belly and it was every bit as big as this one. Which is why I believe this Monster hog was every bit as big as it looks like in the photo and even though photo shop can doctor a photo, I don't think this is the case here. Plus in this story there was Andy Howell, game warden for the Alabama Department of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries, who documented the size of this hog. If anyone wants to be sceptical about the size of the hog, they should contact him first and see what he says, before they stick their feet in their mouths in disbelief. We have giant people, not many but there are a few, so why would you not believe there are monster hogs? Just because you haven't seen one, doesn't meant they don't exist.; Reply to this comment


by sjw1253 June 2, 2007 12:57 AM EDT: I promised I would be back and here I am. In 2005 - MSNBC had a story at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7264865 (which is still active).

The title of the article is:
"Monster swine %u2018Hogzilla%u2019 was real, experts say
Documentary confirms Georgia hog was 8 feet long, 800 pounds"

The story was provided by the AP. Toward the end of the article:
"12-foot claim Holyoak said Hogzilla weighed in at half a ton on his farm scales, and that he personally measured the hog%u2019s length at 12 feet while the freshly killed beast was dangling by straps from a backhoe"

Yes - they are claiming this is real as well and this photo actually shows a man in a dug out hole next to the "wild hog" hanging ?probably from a tree.

I hope some may find this just as intriguing - who knows - maybe the kid saw this photo and was clever enough to figure out how to replicate the trick vs. maybe there have been two.

Who knows... I think a video on YouTube (or the local news station) would be more convincing - if indeed it is verifiable...; Reply to this comment


by sjw1253 June 1, 2007 7:16 PM EDT: This photo is similar to a photo I was a few years ago while taking classes online through the University of Maryland.

One of my fellow students posted a similar photo of a so called "giant hog"...

I recall we were using a guage of estimates of other sizes of background images to estimate the size of the hog.

I have a sense this is Photo Shop trickery. This is not the first time a photo of such a "hog" has been shown.

If I can find it in my notes I will re-post later to provide the reference.; Reply to this comment


by reboot87 June 1, 2007 12:17 PM EDT: Growing up in a rural/farming community I knew it had to be fake. My cousin raises pigs and I've seen some big ones at the fair.

This fake pig would have to weigh 5000 lbs or more.

Illinois; Reply to this comment


by ronmwanga June 1, 2007 2:25 AM EDT: What 11 year old kid is going to stalk and kill a 1,000 plus pound feral anything? Really.; Reply to this comment


by bigkenny9 June 1, 2007 2:07 AM EDT: oh look another political writing. who would have ever thought that one was not going to be on.; Reply to this comment


by bricko May 31, 2007 11:52 PM EDT: You are right, I would have killed and ate it much younger. Always get them when they are young and tender. Cook in a pit for at least 8 hrs...invite all your Religion of Peace (RoP) friends over and have a spot of tea.

Gotta love it though, a kid with his very own 50 caliber...gotta get one of those. That could unwrap a turban right quick.; Reply to this comment