Shame on her!

Thank God for the Daily Mail. On a slow news day, I know I can always find something to get me irritated in their Aladdin's cave of indignant, incredulous trash.

Yesterday's hot topic was the headline: Britney Spears Calls In The Airbrush Experts. In typically jeering style, the Mail revels in pictures of Britney's 'wobbly tummy' taken in concert a month ago, compared with pictures of her used in a new ad campaign.

What really irks me about this story is the way they portray the need for photoshop as a diva-like demand from the star herself. The fact is, the photographer, client, ad agency and talent representatives would have all had a say in the use of any image manipulation tools. Britney has been photoshopped whether she likes it or not.

Of course, the real irony in all this, is the fact that the Daily Mail is drawing attention to the misuse of software like PhotoShop. Especially since they are internationally renowned for having some of the sloppiest graphic designers in the business. And let's not even get started on the dubious ethics of a newspaper feeling that it's acceptable to doctor images that accompany its news stories.

My particular favourite is this picture of Anne Diamond, holding a fan of 'offensive' computer games that she reviewed for the Mail. I must have missed the following day's issue when they asked Dominik Diamond to create a knitting pattern.