A picture is worth ... ?

What do the Fox News Channel and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard have in common? Both were caught in the act of surreptitiously doctoring photographs. The Revolutionary Guard’s media arm, Sepah News, issued a photo July 9 that appeared to show four long-range missiles streaking into the sky. The next day, the Associated Press produced evidence that only three missiles actually made it off the ground.

You could say that Sepah News was taking a page from the “Fox & Friends” morning show, which on July 2 aired photos of two New York Times staffers that had been digitally altered to resemble spawn of Satan. Busted by the liberal news watchdog Media Matters for America, Fox News was unapologetic, saying in effect that all cable news outlets have fun with Photoshop.

But tying Sepah to Fox News wouldn’t really be fair or balanced. News outlets and partisans have been tweaking photos to make them more or less flattering almost since film was invented. This newspaper has unknowingly published altered pictures too. Happily, the latest incidents are a reminder that just as it has become child’s play to tinker with images, it’s even harder to get away with it.