Fakers and Doctors...

I chose this picture because war, as you know, can be a very sensitive situation and pictures/visuals of war have profoundly impacted public opinion of a war in the past and in the present. This picture originated supposedly from Basra and was featured on the from cover of the Los Angeles times in 2003 during the early stages of the Iraqi invasion. This picture is actually two separate pictures that were doctored to create the appearance of this British soldier signaling this Iraqi civilian and his child to sit down and take cover. Now had I not known that bit of information then I probably would have thought that the Iraqi was carrying his dead child for burial or something to that nature and the soldier was telling the father that he could proceed no further. Apparently a journalist from the Los Angeles times thought that combining these to pics of the soldier and the Iraqi civilians would make a picture of "improved composition." I believe that doctoring pictures is a big journalistic crime that should be punishable by firing or at least a severe pay cut because, as I said in the beginning, pictures like these can have a profound impact on peoples opinion of a war. I believe that photo doctoring, in the sense of altering a picture enough to change its true nature, is a form of visual and journalistic lying and therefor I believe that it is wrong!