Bogus photos

It's episodes like the bogus photos coming out of Lebanon and sometimes make me wish I could diasssociate myself from the news media.
The first one to come to light was a photo showing smoke over Beiruit carried by Reuters. Why in the hell none of the Reuters photo editors recognized the telltale signs of clumsy tampering is a the mystery of the year. The plumes of heavy smoke bear the repetitive patters that can only come from sloppy use of the rubber stamp/cloning tool in Photoshop. The photographer's excuse that he was just trying to get rid of dust in the image, but was hampered by bad light just doesn't wash.
I'm reluctant to go so far as to accuse Reuters, the New York Times and AP of deliberately trying to build sympathy for Israel's enemies. I'm more inclined to blame over-competitive and unethical photographers and lazy, careless photo editors.
But the result is the same - a growing perception that the news media can't be trusted to tell the truth or get the story right.
Here's an overview:
http://www.aish.com/movies/PhotoFraud.asp