Many times, news gets lost

by Ryan Alessi

I’m not sure if you saw it. But it might be worth another look.

Last Tuesday, we ran a photo – a graphic photo – on page 3. The image showed a stream of blood flowing from the body of a young Sierra Leone civilian, shot at point blank range during a protest against Sierra Leonean rebels.

It was a powerful image and at the same time, somewhat shocking.

The night before, while the newspaper was being put together, managing editor Christine Bryant called me to say I might want to make sure it wasn’t too graphic to print.

After looking at it, reading the caption and story, and getting some opinions from other editors, I said, "Go with it."

To be honest, I approved using the photo fully expecting to get letters from readers. I was prepared to answer questions of "How could you run something like that?’ with questions of my own: "How could this have happened in the first place?"

But, as it turned out, I didn’t need to. No irate phone calls. No angry letters. Not so much as a passing comment about it.

I’m not a paranoid editor. I don’t base my decisions on whether we’ll get angry letters. Editors at The Post are expected to make their decisions based on what the news is and whether printing articles and photos will accurately and fairly help our readers better understand the world.

When I saw this photo, I couldn’t help but think back to the backlash The Post received four years ago when it printed a photo after a fatal accident on U.S. route 33. Four OU students died after their Jeep Wrangler flipped at 2 a.m. April 12, 1996.

The April 12 issue of The Post featured a front-page photo of the then-county coroner kneeling over the body of one of the dead students. A sheet stained with blood covers the body. It is a graphic photo. And The Post ran it.

"We felt we needed to print a photo because only an image could convey the seriousness of the accident," wrote then-editor Joe Shaulis in a column Monday, April 15. "We believe our coverage was not sensational. It reflected the magnitude of the accident – the most deadly accident involving students in as many as 20 years."

Shaulis wrote the column in response to readers who expressed outrage for The Post's use of the photo.

"I have lost most of my respect I had for The Post," one reader wrote in his letter to the editor. "What if it were your friend, brother or sister shown in this manner?"

Shaulis's response: "When our reporters were on the scene and when we chose to print the photo, we had no way of knowing the victim's identities - We were worried they were our friends or co-workers."

All this anger and discussion over a photograph. Later, the outburst was tempered when The Post reported police determined alcohol contributed to the crash.

But that initial burst of calls and letters four years ago, compared to the startling silence last week, got me thinking – do people only care if something like that happens in their town or neighborhood?

Jaap van Ginneken, author of ••Understanding Global News•• actually spells out a rule of tragic death. "The rule is: 10,000 deaths on another continent equal 1,000 deaths in another country equal 100 deaths in (the state) equal 10 deaths in the center of the capital equal one celebrity," he writes.

It's probably true. How many of us know why people are killing each other in Sierra Leone? How many people even stopped to read the caption underneath the photo of that dead Sierra Leone citizen?

While the plight of a 6-year-old Cuban boy and upcoming elections have dominated recent headlines, national armies have clashed with rebels in Sri Lanka, Colombia, the Philippines, Burundi and Sierra Leone in just the last two weeks.

But based on the lack of letters and comments, no one is listening or reading. Maybe no one will unless it happens next door.

So last Monday, while I was looking at the photo from Sierra Leone, I asked Christine, our managing editor, if she would have run the photo of the young man if he were an Athens resident. She said yes.

I would have too. And I’d be ready for those letters.

Alessi, a senior journalism major, is editor of The Post. He can be reached at ra799. Letter from the Editor appears Tuesdays.