Culture Secretary caught in photo doctoring storm after lambasting TV fakery

James Purnell, the Culture Secretary, was facing calls for his resignation today after being accused of helping fake a photo-call. Mr Purnell, who recently lectured the media about the importance of trust, was pictured in a doctored photograph that suggests, falsley, that he had attended an event at the same time as other MPs. This month’s issue of the Thameside and Glossop Acute Services NHS Trust staff newsletter features a picture of local MPs on the site of a new hospital. Mr Purnell, MP for Stalybridge and Hythe, is shown smiling next to his colleagues on the front page of “Staff Matters”. The truth, however, is that the Culture Secretary turned up 20 minutes late to the event in July and his image was added afterwards. The faked photograph was distributed to the local media as well as being used internally.
The NHS trust said yesterday that Mr Purnell had consented to the deception but his aides privately claimed that he had not realised what the hospital planned to do. Mr Purnell was expected to clarify the position tonight. Regardless of whether he connived in the fakery, however, the publication of the doctored photograph is highly embarrassing given his recent remarks in the wake of a series of rows over TV ‘fakery’. The incident comes soon after the furore over the faking of a trailer advertising a documentary on the Queen. Mr Purnell kept silent at the time but speaking to television industry executives earlier this month he told them to put their “house in order” after a “bad year”. “In both politics and television, you devalue the only currency you have if you forfeit the trust of the public,” he told the Royal Television Society on September 13. Only last weekend Mr Purnell was repeating the point in a Sunday newspaper diary. “The industry needs to learn the (important) lessons from the recent trust issues and move on. The irony of a politician lecturing anyone on loss of trust isn't lost on me - it's a bit like a City banker lecturing a Premier League footballer about pay restraint. But the point needs to be made,” he told the Observer. In a statement the Tameside NHS trust said: “Unfortunately, due to his hectic ministerial schedule James Purnell was late for the photo-shoot, and arrived shortly after the other MPs had to leave. All the MPs had gone to great efforts to show their support, and as we would not be able to stage a repeat of this historic day for the hospital, we decided to take a photograph of Mr Purnell in the same spot very shortly after, and merge it with the earlier photograph, to which Mr Purnell kindly consented. “We apologise if anyone feels misled by this, but we took the judgement that the image of all our MPs on site supporting this excellent new project, was too good an opportunity to miss.” Shadow Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt said that Mr Purnell’s position was in jeopardy. “So much for the "spin-free" era we were promised under Gordon Brown. Here is cast-iron proof that Labour Ministers are quite happy to “fake it” if they think they can get away with it. James Purnell’s position as culture secretary looks completely untenable. How can broadcasters be expected to clean up their act if the Secretary of State is telling people to doctor photographs? Mr Purnell went public with this picture. He must now make a public apology at the very least.” Number 10 was remaining officially silent this evening but Downing Street sources admitted that the incident was embarrassing while claiming it was trivial.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2553506.ece