The Economist magazine has been left red faced after it emerged they edited a photograph of Barack Obama pondering the oil spill in Louisiana.

On their June 19 cover the president was pictured staring out at the sea alone – but it turns out the two people who he was standing with were simply photoshopped out.

Reuters, who took the original photo, weren’t too happy. They issued a statement huffing that they have “a strict policy against modifying, removing, adding to or altering any of its photographs”.

Interesting, given they don’t always seem to impose the same standards on the work of others.

Last month Reuters were caught cropping out knives and a pool of blood from a photograph of Israeli soldiers under attack on the flotilla.

And in 2006 they doctored a photo to add in smoke to a picture from the Second Lebanon War.

Seems they follow the rule of “do as I say, not as I do.”