That Missle Picture

Not surprisingly, Errol Morris has some interesting thoughts about the photograph of an Iranian ballistic missile test that was Photoshopped to show four missiles firing rather than three:

NEWSPAPERS and blogs are once again filled with a story about a digitally altered photograph. A picture of missiles launched by Iran. A picture that purports to show four missiles being fired rather than the three shown in other photographs of the launching. Are we to infer that no missiles were launched? Or just three? Or maybe only two? Take several steps back. Are we being tricked into thinking that Iran is a bigger threat than it is?

Oddly enough, the effect of all this publicity — including this essay — is to draw further attention to the missiles. If the casual reader passed over them quickly when they first appeared on the front pages of American newspapers, the missiles are now more than ever firmly embedded in the popular imagination.

As Morris points out, photographs - allegedly incontrovertible proof - have gotten us into trouble before (see Colin Powell at the UN pre-Iraq). Are we headed down the same road again? Faked photographs, after all, have a long and rich history, as they play into our "willingness to uncritically believe."

Regardless, it's given the Iranian missile test more press than it probably deserved in the first place.