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Picture - When readers attack

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Tommy_Dreamer, Mar 21, 2007.

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  1. Tommy_Dreamer

    Tommy_Dreamer Well-Known Member

    Maybe this belongs on the journalism topics board, but I want full feedback from you fine folks.

    Here's the photo.

    [​IMG]

    :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[

    This particular photo was taken by one of our reporters on the scene. The guy on the left's 2-year old son had gotten run over and killed by a school bus. He arrived on the scene 30 minutes after the accident and upon arrival collapsed with grief.

    The paper has been receiving angry rants about "how we could dare run such a thing, exposing the family. You're no better than a tabloid."

    What do people want from their local paper if not the blunt and honest truth?
     
  2. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    Pictures of their kids playing ball because they try hard and phonebook journalism...


    Great shot..
     
  3. LiveStrong

    LiveStrong Active Member

    I'll admit that I'm a big baby about this stuff now because I have a six-month old, but that picture completely took my breath away. Wow.
     
  4. BYH

    BYH Active Member

    You'll get the same shit everywhere.

    Eons ago, a guy shot himself to death at the gravesite of his dead wife. The paper where I worked ran a photo from the graveyard in which you could see the dead man lying prone in the distance. You would not believe the shit we got from the idiot readers.

    Slappy is 100000% right. They don't want journalism, they want to feel good about themselves. It's like this iin every form of media. Don't report the bad news, report what I want to know. etc etc etc.

    Oh and that is a remarkable photo. Someone's winning an award for that.
     
  5. Freelance Hack

    Freelance Hack Active Member

    Would they rather you run a picture of a tiny body bag? Or the toddler's chalk outline on the road?
     
  6. 21

    21 Well-Known Member

    Run it tastefully. Not splashy and huge. The picture is powerful enough without ramming it down people's throats.

    But definitely run it.
     
  7. PCLoadLetter

    PCLoadLetter Well-Known Member

    Years ago a co-worker (TV photog) had to cover a barricade situation. He could hear a commotion inside the house so he started rolling video. He was standing next to a photographer from the local paper. Suddenly a man crashed out of the house through a window, completely engulfed in flames. As you might imagine, the pictures were pretty compelling. We found out later he had killed a child inside the house, then set himself on fire.

    People wrote letters to the paper and the TV station telling us the photogs were worse than the dude who killed a baby and lit himself on fire.

    A large percentage of the American populace is dumber than a rock.
     
  8. Freelance Hack

    Freelance Hack Active Member

    Please don't insult rocks.
     
  9. Tommy_Dreamer

    Tommy_Dreamer Well-Known Member

    Not sure if I mentioned it or not. The photog was done by the reporter at the scene.

    When I first saw this I was almost moved to tears by the man's grief, but the journalist in me said, and I quote.

    "Great fucking photo!"

    This appeared on the paper's front page, btw. Large.
     
  10. The photo is amazing.

    Before having a child of my own, I'm not sure how I'd have reacted. Probably not as deeply. I likely would have paid far less attention.

    But I have a 3-year-old, and despite being the cynical, jaded bastard I am, this picture makes me cry. The thought of this man's loss is crushing, almost inconceivable sad to me. I'm not sure i would survive losing my child.

    And that's exactly why people need to see it. To remember. Just in case it was possible for me to forget what's really important to me and how much I love my son, something like this, if only for a short time, helps me keep a little bit of perspective.

    Everybody should see this.

    And nobody should want to.

    And that's why we should make sure they do. Because part of our job, at least the way I see it, is to balance the responsibilities of giving people what they want and what they need.

    And anytime we totally eliminate one in favor of the other, we're failing.
     
  11. Tommy_Dreamer

    Tommy_Dreamer Well-Known Member

    Amen.
     
  12. Ex-fucking-actly. This is the much more eloquent version of the argument I was going to make (and have in the past).
     
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