Granted, this “photograph” in today’s New York Times should not have fooled me into believing it was an actual photograph. After all, icicles do not normally hang from a “For Sale” sign at times of year when greenery covers trees and lawns, as was clearly visible in the background.
But fool me it did. I immediately thought, “Wow, what a great picture to use with a story about the chilly real estate market” — a market that my wife and I are enduring in all of its frostiness at the moment.
Then I read the teeny-tiny type underneath that said “Illustration by the New York Times.” To the uninitiated, “illustration” in this case means that the photo is not real but was produced through the miracles modern technology.
I don’t like being fooled — even for a moment — and I suspect that’s a fairly common reaction among newspaper readers.
This isn’t the greatest of journalistic sins by any stretch. But why offer people yet another reason to question whether the press is giving it to them straight?
