Gathering together around 150 years of photo manipulations, some better than others, this page helps put things in a bit of perspective. First, it's nothing new. For almost as long as there have been photographs, there have been people willing and able to make them misrepresent objective reality. More importantly, it's getting worse because it's getting easier. You really can't trust what you see unless you're seeing it first hand. Today anything that's reproduced anywhere could very well be Photoshopped or otherwise manipulated to support an agenda. Be critical of your media and don't even begin to trust your advertisements.
This video pretty much nails what's become the standard formula for the modern video news story. Note the cadance in the dialog as well... and the difficulty in making out everything the "man on the street" interviewees are saying.
Two things it's missing: Subtitles for what people are saying, even if we can understand them perfectly and the banter back at the newsdesk after the story that compeltely undercuts any seriousness that may have been present in the story itself.
How does your local newscast stack up? Do they use this formula, too?
