FDA Doctored Its Gross Cigarette Photos

The government has long accused those evil tobacco companies of running campaigns of deception to sell their products. Well, now the FDA is fighting fire with fire, Charles Hurt of the Washington Times has learned. The FDA has released a set of gruesome images that will soon be plastered on cigarette packs—and they are fabricated. “Some are photographs; some are illustrations,” a spokesman told Hurt. And good luck telling which is which.

The seemingly dead man with the zipped-up chest? “It’s not a dead body,” the spokesman said. “It’s an actor.” The man breathing cigarette smoke out his throat? “That’s a Photoshopped illustration,” the spokesman said. For Hurt, the photos call to mind the gruesome dead baby images pro-lifers wave at their rallies. “Visually, in terms of repulsiveness, there is little difference,” he writes. “The only difference is that the government doctored its pictures. And you paid for them.” (More cigarette stories.)