Dishonesty in the media? I can't imagine...

Rachida Dati has made the headlines again in France, but this time it wasn't because of something she said. Ms Dati has been in and out of the news since her appointment as Minister of Justice in 2007, which made her the first woman of North African origins to hold a top government position.

Recently she's been in the news for her controversial initial response to the Virgin Bride trial, and before that she made news when she announced that at 42, she was pregnant and that she would remain single, without disclosing who the father was.

She's back in the news again, or rather, her jewelery has made the news. The French national paper Le Figaro has been accused of retouching a photo of Madame Dati, erasing a 15.000 euro ring from her finger which appeared in the original photo. It is being said that the newspaper did this to combat the criticism Dati gets for her preference for designer clothes and for appearing in glossy magazines. They said they didn't want the ring to take attention away from the real story. Oops, guess that backfired.

Of course the serious question this raises is whether or not the media should be able to manipulate images and present them as reality. I mean, I know this is the first time this has ever happened, and I hope it will be the last. We can't be having re-touched photos in the media; that would just be dishonest.....