Server: Netscape-Enterprise/2.01 Date: Fri, 19 Dec 1997 03:41:16 GMT Content-type: text/html Scripps Corporate - Put Yourself In The Editor's Shoes














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Would You Have Given the Okay??
Put Yourself in the Editor's Shoes

Editors know from experience that some pictures are worth a thousand words, just like the adage says.

They know, too, that visual images can say different things to different people, creating a fine line between appropriate and inappropriate photo usage.

By applying standards of ethical acceptance and community consciousness, photographers, photo editors and editors strive to be objective with subjective material. Their decisions about the pictures their newspapers publish are frequently met with rave reviews or raving protests in the newsroom and in the community.

Alan M. Horton, senior vice president of publishing for Scripps, sensitizes community groups to the difficult task with a slide show that features the work of Naples Daily News staff photographers. Pictures from that show are presented here. Read the case studies and tell us why you would or wouldn't publish the picture. When you are finished simply fill in your name and email address and press the SEND button located at the bottom of the page.

Case No. 1...

shows grieving relatives of a sheriff's lieutenant after his funeral. Is it an invasion of privacy to publish this photo?

Case No. 2...

gives readers an idea how hard paramedics worked to save a toddler who fell into a swimming pool. Shortly after this picture was made, the child was pronounced dead from drowning. Would you publish this photo, knowing how much pain it will cause a grieving family and most readers who are especially sensitive to tragedies involving children?

Case No. 3...

gives readers an idea of the lengths police officers will go to censor the press if they believe reporters are determined to make them look bad. This picture shows officers in the background subduing a felony suspect while the police officer in the foreground displays his palm prints. Would this photo make a bigger deal out of the incident in the background that is merited, and is it fair to tar the whole department with the instant indiscretion of one patrolman with a lack of appreciation for the public's right to know?

Case No. 4...

depicts a young mother who has been yanked from her car and charged with conspiracy to sell crack cocaine. Her young son is in the background. The woman allegedly took $20 from an undercover officer with the vague promise she would try to provide a "rock" of crack. She never delivered. Should a newspaper brand her and her son by publishing this picture?


Cases No. 5 and 6...

are probably humorous to most readers but not those depicted, their classmates and others. One shows an ardent prom couple; the other, an over-tired junior ROTC cadet.
Case5

Case6

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