View Single Post
Old 05-14-2007, 07:18 PM   #1 (permalink)
snowy
Kick Ass Kunoichi
 
snowy's Avatar
 
Location: Oregon
Appropriate Images: The New York Times

So while I was at work today, I was thumbing through the New York Times. I don't always start with the front page; in fact, I usually don't, because usually someone has left it open to a page, and I start with that. So after reading some articles on the inner pages of the front section, I finally closed the paper. The picture on the front caught my attention right away, due to the lurid color of pink sheets. To my horror, the NYTimes had printed this picture on the front of the paper:



That man is dead--that is a dead body on a stretcher, with people surrounding it and taking pictures of it. Certainly, the man in question (Mullah Dadullah) is guilty of some heinous crimes, but what gives anyone the right to take pictures of him in death and splash them all over the front pages of the news? Wouldn't a picture of him living sufficed? How is printing a picture of a dead body on the front page of the newspaper--where anyone can see it, including small children--appropriate?

In contrast to this, the Sunday Styles section of the New York Times from yesterday refused to print pictures of Leonard Nimoy's latest exhibition of obese women in artistic, sensual poses, photos which are meant to contradict the American image of beauty. This is one of the pictures they did print with the article, which gives an idea of what Mr. Nimoy's work is like:



The paper said in the article that the images of Mr. Nimoy's work are too explicit for printing in the paper.

What I'm still trying to wrap my head around is this idea that sensual nudity is explicit while a dead body on a stretcher is not. Does anyone else see something wrong with these pictures? Why is an image showing the result of extreme violence and showing a corpse responsible for atrocities acceptable when showing fat women naked is not?


Links to the articles in question: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/fa...b19&ei=5087%0A

and

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/wo.../14afghan.html
__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau
snowy is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360