Mirror's weeping child picture is a lie and smacks of lazy journalism at best | Media | theguardian.com: The Daily Mirror's weeping child picture was basically a lie, and we don't normally condone lying. The Mirror used a stock shot of an American child taken five years ago to illustrate their front-page splash about the growth of food banks. This is the prime position for a news image and the Mirror has a fine tradition of commissioning and publishing strong news pictures.
Its photographic style has its roots in gritty Picture Post-type reportage of UK social affairs. To use a stock shot on the front page is misleading its readers and a betrayal of its photographic heritage. The reader really doesn't expect a picture used with a front-page hard news story to be a soft library image.
