I have been thinking a great deal about the previous post. Using the manipulation example that I did was over the top in terms wanting to make a very important point.
Evaluating any practice is always a matter of context.
What I am afraid of is that the average person does not typically distinguish between genres of pictures such as advertising images and magazine covers, or news images and personal snap shots. Maybe I am totally naive here, but I think alot of people read pictures as pictures first, while interpreting the context later.
Our goal, as photojournalists and educators, should be to educate people on the importance of images in society. This is where the conversation needs to start.