Altering Photos Bad, Bad, Bad

With technology continuing to advance the things that journalists are able to do, such as altering photos, has become a problem that many publications have had to deal with.

In 2003, the Los Angeles Times placed a photo of a British soldier ordering an Iraqi father to take cover. The gesture of the soldier and the protective stance of the father made for a great photo. A reader of the newspaper noticed that some people in the background of the photo appeared more than once. Photographer Brian Walski had indeed combined two photographs in order to create a stronger composition.

When looking at the photo closely, it is not immediately obvious that any altering was done, until you inspect the background. Walski was fired from the Los Angeles Times because altering photos is prohibited in the newspaper's policy. But even though this man lost his job because of the alterations does this mean that everyone should be penalized for doing the same?

Although such programs as Adobe Photoshop have given journalists the tools to create things in a photo that weren't originally there this doesn't mean that it should be allowed. The photo was misleading to all the people who picked up the paper that day. The image never really happened in the way that it was portrayed and altering photos to this degree is not something that journalists should ever do. People need to realize the severity of creating such a misleading image and that doing so usually results in consequences.