Article on front page of local paper

catloverin_ks

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 13, 2006
Messages
10,177
Purraise
1
Location
Podunk, Kansas
Maybe this shouldnt bug me, but it does......

Early this morning a man was stabbed to death in a town about 13 miles from me. (well this town is where I do my grocery shopping and such, it is where my Wa-lMart is and the pet store and humane society) Anyhoo-tonite on the front page they had a big write up about this murder and a picture, well in the picture you can actually see the mans blood....

I dunno,like I said, maybe it shouldnt bug me, but it does! I dunno if the blood was supposed to be in the picture, maybe they didnt realize it.

Oh and btw, crimes like this never happen around here!!
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #3

catloverin_ks

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 13, 2006
Messages
10,177
Purraise
1
Location
Podunk, Kansas
Originally Posted by CarolPetunia

I understand. It seems disrespectful, somehow. And needlessly painful for the man's loved ones.
Exactly!! I dunno, I think I would be rather p'd off if it were my family!!

And just something about it, I dunno~is just really bothering me!! IMO, they should of waited to take a pic, after the blood was washed away!!!
 

natalie_ca

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jul 2, 2006
Messages
21,136
Purraise
223
Location
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
We had something similar happen here where the media showed a dead body on the front page.

The crime involved a 2 guys and a girl who drove across Canada committing robberies and shootings. They were finally caught in Manitoba. An RCMP officer was gunned down with a sawed off shotgun.

The shooter was shot by a police sniper and killed and they showed his body on the front page of our local newspapers.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2003/...ll_030429.html

There were lots of complaints about that. It takes a great deal to phase me when it comes to society, but even I was shocked because while the guy was a criminal and had killed a few people including a police officer, he was also someone's son and even if he didn't deserve much respect, his mother's feelings should have been taken into consideration and that picture should never have aired.
 

kiwideus

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jul 4, 2002
Messages
13,901
Purraise
12
Location
Aotearoa
Thats interesting you should bring this up.

A wee while ago, a woman was brutally murdered and dumped in the river. The photo on the front page of the paper showed the police working at the river and in the side of the photo, you could see her hands. They were bound. This caused a lot of upset in the community. I am not sure what people were more upset at - her hands being shown, or the fact that she was known as a sex worker and nothing else - not that she was a mother of a little girl, or that she was a daughter, or that she had dreams of becoming a social worker. She was just a sex worker to the newspaper people.

And funnily enough, a man, who was a member of a gang, was murdered by his ex girlfriend (or something like that) and he was a particularly bad man, and they showed his whole dead body in the paper, and nobody cared.

Double standard? Who knows.
 

sadie's mom

TCS Member
Super Cat
Joined
Apr 10, 2006
Messages
1,068
Purraise
1
As a former photojournalist, I'm must disagree with you. While I can understand your feelings about this, you must see this through the photojournalist's eyes. Please remember that a photojournalist sees things differently than most other people (thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s why they do what they do). Since the blood was already there, the photographer probably viewed it as something that would make a very powerful statement in the photo. The photojournalist is paid to be objective not to censor situations, and they merely report on what they are seeing. As a person who has been in the photojournalistâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s shoes, I can say that the photo accomplished what the photographer wanted it to – youâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]re talking about it here in this forum instead of not talking about it at all.

Don't worry, I won't take offence to any of you who will, most certainly, disagree with me. I just wanted to let you know where the photojournalist was coming from and why he did what he did.
 

clairebear

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Nov 17, 2006
Messages
1,541
Purraise
1
Location
Manchester, CT
Originally Posted by Sadie's Mom

As a former photojournalist, I'm must disagree with you. While I can understand your feelings about this, you must see this through the photojournalist's eyes. Please remember that a photojournalist sees things differently than most other people (thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s why they do what they do). Since the blood was already there, the photographer probably viewed it as something that would make a very powerful statement in the photo. The photojournalist is paid to be objective not to censor situations, and they merely report on what they are seeing. As a person who has been in the photojournalistâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s shoes, I can say that the photo accomplished what the photographer wanted it to – youâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]re talking about it here in this forum instead of not talking about it at all.

Don't worry, I won't take offence to any of you who will, most certainly, disagree with me. I just wanted to let you know where the photojournalist was coming from and why he did what he did.
Yeah I agree with that..
 

carolpetunia

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 25, 2005
Messages
9,669
Purraise
17
Location
Plano, Texas
It's not that the photo shouldn't have been taken -- there's absolutely a place for powerful statements like that, I agree.

Photojournalism is the greatest storyteller of all, and it can often effect change where no amount of reasoned argument ever could. Which is why the administration has determinedly suppressed photos of flag-draped coffins returning from Iraq, for example.

But for the loved ones of a murder victim to have to see that picture on the front page the next day... if I were the newspaper editor, I would at least put it on the inside of the paper, so it wouldn't be impossible to avoid.

I imagine his wife walking out to pick up the paper from the yard, y'know?
 

sadie's mom

TCS Member
Super Cat
Joined
Apr 10, 2006
Messages
1,068
Purraise
1
Originally Posted by CarolPetunia

It's not that the photo shouldn't have been taken -- there's absolutely a place for powerful statements like that, I agree.

Photojournalism is the greatest storyteller of all, and it can often effect change where no amount of reasoned argument ever could. Which is why the administration has determinedly suppressed photos of flag-draped coffins returning from Iraq, for example.

But for the loved ones of a murder victim to have to see that picture on the front page the next day... if I were the newspaper editor, I would at least put it on the inside of the paper, so it wouldn't be impossible to avoid.

I imagine his wife walking out to pick up the paper from the yard, y'know?
While we're all apathetic to the wife's feelings, you have to remember, what's news is news. An objective editor (and, again, that's what they get paid to be), can not (and I hate to say it, should not) concern themselves with how people react to what they put in print (aside from having a sense of civic duty). A journalist is well-versed and trained in "ethics" (they do know the difference between news and sensationalism, and how both make people react), but the journalistic creed is "your story and the facts are always to be put before personal feelings."

Again, I understand how you feel, but news is news. And, let me ask you, do you see much difference between this situation (i.e. the wife) and if you were to see your missing child's face on a milk carton when you were getting groceries? Interesting quandry, isn't it?!
 
Top