No Pictures Please

You have to be kidding me! The Atlanta Journal-Constitution apologized to readers for using a picture of Madonna kissing Britney Spears on the front page the other day.

AJC Managing Editor for News Hank Klibanoff wrote in today's paper:

We have a high standard of presentation that is in line with community sensibilities, and we have filters that work to maintain those standards. The difficulty comes when news turns ugly, horrid, profane or provocative in some other way that might offend community sensibilities.

During the war in Iraq, it happened a lot, and in the name of presenting a truthful, full account of the war, our filter got tested and stretched a lot. We ran images we otherwise might not have run. But that was war, and war was news.

The photo we ran Friday was neither, and I wish I had limited its display to the inside of the Living section.

We want the paper to be appropriate to the widest possible readership at the same time that we want it to deliver a straightforward accounting of the big news, the talk of the town, from the day before. That is sometimes a tricky balance, and we spend a lot of time seeking that balance while not being afraid of the news.

Usually, I think, we do this well. With this photo, we did not.

HANK KLIBANOFF
Managing Editor for News

Yeah, right. Why even run a picture at all since it was already seen on television
live?

And figuring out how to run a picture of Madonna kissing girls with hurting music careers is the same as editing images of war? Please.

But what scares me more are the AJC readers who can't look at the world around them.