David Shaw, LA Times, gives us his take on media failures in 2003: Lowlights of bad press deserve more bad press (free registration required).
After hammering the New York Times Shaw goes on to find 10 other bad moments, and bad they are. Your favorite is probably on the list. Sample:

Brian Walski, a Los Angeles Times photographer since 1998, used his computer to combine elements of two photographs, taken moments apart in Iraq, into one photograph that was then published on the front page of The Times. That’s a no-no. Times policy prohibits altering the content of news photographs. So The Times altered Walski’s career. He was fired.

Via Kevin Drum.