Americans may be divided over many things right now - but one thing I would hope everyone should agree on is the importance of telling the truth. Photographers tell a story with pictures as evidence, and from these we draw inferences and conclusions.

Of course, those inferences and conclusions only make sense if the photographic evidence is honest. Unfortunately, its been revealed that we've been had. A noteworthy photo on the Reuters website was doctored by its freelance, Lebanese photographer.

The photo depicts Beirut after an air strike- and while there's little doubt that Beirut suffered greatly, the smoke is clumsily exaggerated with the help of Photoshop's "clone" tool.

The revelation came after the crude retouching was noticed by - who else? Bloggers.

Reuters Group plc (Public, LON:RTR) pulled the photo- and all other photos attributed to the photographer quickly enough, but it's created a stir for a number of reasons:

1. If this photo is fake, how many other mass media photographs have been altered to frive home a point?

2. The supposed "original" photo (prior to retouching) is shown and clearly there's already plenty of smoke over Beiruit. So why in heck did anyone think more smoke needed to be added?

3. Photoshop is a pretty good program, but it takes a little practice to get the hang of it (I speak from experience!) Why on Earth would anyone try to pass off such a crude retouching job as a the real deal? (For heaven's sake, a school kid could have done a more admirable job.)