House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is pretty proud to have a record number of women in Congress this year. Sadly, not all of these women were proud enough to show up on time for the photo shoot. So Pelosi's office resorted to the favorite tool of propagandists world-wide: Photoshop. Poynter's Andrew Beaujon explains that the four tardy females were added in the back.

At left is the Associated Press's undoctored version, at right is Pelosi's doctored one:

A closeup of the added latecomers. Update: There are at least four latecomers, but the women were shuffled a bit on the stairs, so it's hard to tell if there were more. Perhaps the woman in a black blazer and gray pants on the left side was added in? As well as a woman in a yellow hat on the right side?

The House Democratic caucus has so many women and minorities that it doesn't have a white male majority -- the first time that's happened for any congressional caucus. In fairness, Pelosi's office did not attempt to conceal its Photoshopping to highlight that fact. The New York Times' Ashley Parker reported that a handfull of congresswomen ran down the stairs to get in the photo, but not everyone made it. Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (pictured in the doctored closeup second from left, top row) "emerged from the House moments too late, just as the group was dispersing," Parker writes. "However, all was not lost; the photographer took some shots of the late arrivals, and the caucus plans to Photoshop them in."

Update: Pelosi defended the photo Friday:

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Elspeth Reeve