C: I am writing to ask that you please do not publish photos showing dead bodies like the one you published Thursday. Yes, it was a terrible crime and tragedy, but showing one of the poor people that died was really uncalled for. I'm sure that person's family is not thrilled about their loved ones corpse being shown all over the world either. It makes an already horrible crime seem more impersonal and horrible by such graphic pictures.
We are subscribers and enjoy reading your paper each day, it makes a nice change from the sensationalized television news, but I feel that you are trying to sensationalize it by publishing photos like that - we have imaginations - we don't need to actually look at the carnage on the front page or have our kids see it. -C.D., T.S.
A: The front-page photo was gruesome - that's real blood flowing down the street from that body. Unlike all the violence we see on television and in the movie theaters, this was real. It was news. News is sometimes awful and gruesome. We're a newspaper. Sure, we could leave much more to readers' imaginations and not print any photos at all, or perhaps just print the headlines and not bother with all those details in the stories, but then we wouldn't be doing our job.
By the way, there were six people killed in this terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Istanbul: three uniformed police officers and three attackers. I have a difficult time getting up any sympathy for one of the "poor people" who died, or for his family, when it's pretty obvious that the dead man was one of the terrorists.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Although I would agree the complainer has a point with "excessive and gruesome" but no matter your position on the war we still have a right to know the news and if the best way to show that news is a picture such as this (which by the way I did not see -- I live in Phoenix, Az) then as mentioned it is the responsibility of the OR to print, tell, describe, SHOW the news via their medium.
Inasmuch as I would not want my young dauter to see these images, for the young men and women who are soon to be our future in this world they deserve the right to view images to truthfully see how the world is. It is not an easy place to make your way nor is it all peaches and cream with some caramel topping. These bastards who prefer to die via bombing themsleves into oblivion and taking all too oft inoocent victims with them should be seen for who they are and what they represent. Not all kids are mature enough to handle it without parental interaction or even censorship but give the kids of today more credit. They have already seen alot more at their young age due to technology, immeidate satisfaction of any story goo, bad, indifferent then I saw until I was 18-20 --
If you want the job as an editor for any publication large or small go apply and be selected and weight the consequences of your actions against the requisite venture of turning a profit in a wickedly competitive market and small marketplace (Washington County) -- against your livelihood...see which one wins most of the time. I commend the editor for placing critical images on the front page. I would not want his job but am fortunate he chooses the path to take showing the trials and tribulations of the current world's state so I can be informed even if I like/dont like the information coming thru.
too many typos...i hit publish before checked...sorry
Post a Comment