Day 1,722: brandish, retouch

In recent weeks pictures of Taylor Swift at an American-football game have been altered to suggest, falsely, that she was brandishing pro-Trump banners. Images fabricated by ai appeared to show the former president with black Americans, a group he is trying to court. Such falsehoods are clearly unacceptable. When is photo retouching valid—and when does it go too far?

What is photo retouching and when is it permissible?

Artwork of the day 
Snowy landscape with a woman brandishing a broom and a man holding an umbrella
Utagawa Kunisada
Style: Ukiyo-e
Genre: landscape

Word of the day 
brandish: to wave something in the air in a threatening or excited way:
retouch: to make small changes to a picture, photograph, etc., especially in order to improve it:

Quote of the day
“I am a wizard, not a baboon brandishing a stick.”

― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince