Vanity Fair's Photo Finagling

FEBRUARY 2--In its December 2005 issue, Vanity Fair magazine manipulated a photograph to make it appear that veteran journalist Peter Arnett was among a group of war correspondents gathered on a teeming Ho Chi Minh City street during a reunion of the Vietnam press corps. In fact, according to a source familiar with the photo shoot, Arnett was not present when photographer Jonas Karlsson shot a group portrait of eight journalists last April. Instead, the former CNN star (who covered the war for the Associated Press) was subsequently photographed solo and grafted--apparently through the magic of Photoshop--onto the group picture. Arnett, who attended part of the Vietnam reunion, which coincided with the 30th anniversary of the war's end, is seen at the far left of the Vanity Fair photo. His space had actually been occupied during the group session by curious Vietnamese passersby. A photo caption claims that Arnett and the other reporters were 'photographed outside their old hangout the Givral Café on April 29, 2005.' Well, eight of nine ain't bad. Usually, when publications combine images into a single picture, the resulting photo is described as a composite. The Vanity Fair byline reads, 'Photograph By Jonas Karlsson.' (1 page)