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During the 2004 presidential election campaign, a potentially damning image proliferated on the Internet of a young John Kerry sharing a speaker’s platform with Jane Fonda during her "Hanoi Jane" period. The photo was eventually revealed to be a deft composite of two images, but who knows how many minds had turned against Kerry by then.

Who would do such a thing?????

[I think I know. hehehe]

Even the recent Reuters photo of Bush's bathroom-break note is under scrutiny.

But, doctored images pre-date common computer use. A few decades ago, National Geographic was in hot water for altering a front cover image. IIRC, they moved a camel and rider closer in proximity to one of the Pyramids in Egypt. Their justification was that it eliminated some of the desert space but did not alter the intent of the photo (sort of sounds like Dan Rather's faxes, doesn't it). The conclusion by critics, however, was that the photo was doctored and published without such disclaimer, and thusly, NG and the photo/cover lost some credibility.

Photochoppers, in their attempts to be humorous, however, can do more damage than good. The Kerry-Fonda photochop is one example. Some big-time (as in NYT, IIRC) media picked up on the image and ran with it as being legit. When they had to issue a retraction, that clouded ALL future Kerry and Fonda images during the election cycle. One humorous action did cause damage to 'integrity'.

Many photochops intentionally include some overt exaggeration just to make sure some expert doesn't claim the image as real. Kerry, for example, riding an ostrich down a city street can hardly be misconstrued as being real.

An image obviously photochopped can be humor. An image photochopped with the obvious intent to deceive is another matter.

Although your term "photochopped" is much more descriptive and accurate, the correct term is "photoshopped".

A real fun web site for seeing the art of photoshopping is www.w1k.com. They offer theme contests for people to photoshop pictures. An example: the theme was "hair", and entries included hairy bananas, wigs on lizards, frogs, hair that made a rino look like a lion.