How far can staging go?

I really liked this short article about staging and the ethics a journalist crosses when he/she decides to stage an event or story. I believe a lot of people think that unless you actually make up an event or create false names that other details of a story can be "fudged" a little. I think this is very tricky ground and that no journalist, no matter what the subject or the minuet detail, can make up anything that does not happen as you see it.
About a year ago my father was on the cover of the New York Times (we were all so proud of him!) in an article about the failing housing market. The reporter wrote that he and my mother were being kept apart (she was in Phoenix at the time, he was in Detroit) because our house wasn't selling. The truth was that our house wasn't even on the market at the time. This was a huge error and an example of improper fact-checking.
I think the reason the journalist chose to say our house was on the market was to make the story more dramatic. The real fact that my Daddy was still in Detroit and my mother was in Phoenix was because my father was still working at GM. But that didn't make a sensational story. I think of this same type of thing when I hear about staging. Chances are the journalist or photographer or whatever isn't actually trying to dupe the reader, but trying to enhance their story. Regardless of your reasons behind making anything up, the bottom line is that a lie is a lie, and lies are never excusable in the work of journalists.