Editor responds to VA Tech photo critics who complained about victim's "private parts."

The photo in question:



(If the photo above doesn't work, here's a link: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=C4&Dato=20070416&Kategori=NEWS07&Lopenr=704160802&Ref=PH )

Biloxi Sun-Herald's editor's response to the complaints he received about putting that photo on his front page:

The photograph of an unidentified victim of the Virginia Tech shooting rampage who is being carried out of Norris Hall Monday by police officers, has raised questions from readers who saw the photo on the front page of Tuesday's Sun Herald. Several have inquired about the condition of the young man. Others have called voicing the concern that a private part of the man's anatomy is shown in the photograph.

Sun Herald editors selected the photograph to be the dominant image on our front page because it showed the gripping drama that occurred on the Virginia Tech campus Monday in its most human terms. We believe the photo represents the best of photojournalism, a moment in time recorded forever of people responding to the event where the evil actions of one man claimed the greatest death toll of any shooting spree in U.S. history. There were many good photographs taken Monday, but in our judgment this was the best. The photo, taken by Alan Kim, a staff photographer from the Roanoke Times and distributed by The Associated Press, has been widely shown by news organizations around the globe, on television and in newspapers and websites.

Our "cutline," the information describing the photograph, was limited, because the circumstances would not allow the photographer to gather information relating to the victim's identification or his condition, given the dynamic moment in which the picture was taken.

In response to reader concerns I called Kathleen Carroll, a Mississippi native who is the Associated Press Executive Editor, to see if she could answer their questions. As of about 1 p.m. EDT Carroll did not know the name of the man in the photo, or his condition.

The AP is seeking to determine this information, and we will post those facts as soon as they are available. As to the matter of the possibility that the man's genitalia has been shown in the photo, Carroll said she did not believe that was the case.

"We looked really closely and don't think it is that. We looked at the photo with the most sophisticated equipment and we don't think it is genitalia. We believe it could be a tourniquet or a piece of clothing." She told me that had the AP thought it was genitalia it would have flagged the photo in a way that would have alerted editors so they could have factored this into their decision to publish the image or not. Carroll characterized the photo as "an enormously important image as it shows the dreadful consequences of the gunman."

We agree on the importance of the photo, and we agree the part of the photo that some have taken to be genitalia is not.

- Stan Tiner

- Executive Editor

***************

Ok...the most tragic school shooting in US history occurs, and this paper's readers are pissed because they think an unidentified man's schlong was shown in a photo of him being rescued? :wtf:

(As has been revealed in numerous news outlets today, the student is Kevin Sterne, a former eagle scout who had the wherewithal to apply a tourniquet after being shot. That's part of the tourniquet in the photo above. Kevin is in stable condition.)

and he's got an erection?

Seriously, who the hell are these people?

:sarcasm:

Saying he'd "pitched a tent." People can be such heartless fuckers sometimes. Well, often.

:banghead:

than by Bush's lust for war.

I swear there are people who see something sexual in everything.

are the sort of people who go through Disney cartoons frame by frame looking for subliminal messages.

Filthy, filthy minds

and even if it were, indeed a part of of the man's anatomy, DAMN!

Glad the man is ok, may he recover fully, quickly, and lead a full and happy life.

:hide:

:rofl:

This is the same reason why self-righteous evangelists get caught consorting with prostitutes or molesting little boys. The prudes of the world are trying sooo hard not to see sex everywhere, but dammit, they just can't help it. It's an obsession with them.

If that's the case then he really is the big man on campus.

WTF is up with these people? When I saw that piece of crap Starship Troopers in the theater, there was a woman with her two young kids sitting in front of me. She was fine with the dismemberment but made them cover their eyes for the coed shower scenes. WTF?


"They train young men to drop fire on people from the sky but they are not allowed to write the word "fuck" on their aircraft for it is obscene."

I had the misfortune of seeing the mauling picture of the guy who tried to make friends with the bears. It was fairly grusome seeing as he was literally half-eaten. His crotch was exposed in the mauling and in the midst of closing the window I thought "You know, if this was shown on national teevee some people would be complaining about the gore and others would complain about the penis." I then thought "Nah, the complaints would have to be about the gore, the penis is incidental." Shows how much I know.

Guy is being carried, maybe dead for all we know, and they're worried that his penis is showing?? My God. What's wrong with these people?

he was being carried like that.

he had a gunshot wound. Given the option of being hauled off by four cops who didn't have a stretcher handy and languishing in a pool of my own blood, however, I'd let them haul me off.

And not a very "experienced" woman at that.

and never once did I think to look at that guy's crotch. It's a tragic scene of a man bleeding to death being carried out by police officers and people are worried that maybe, possibly his genitals are showing?!? wow people really need to get a hobby

was the case. After all the guy is helpless and I doubt he would have wanted to be exposed in front of the world. But I don't think anything of that nature is showing, it's probably the piece of clothing.

Not that it ever really crossed my mind; I was more repelled by the blood on the poor man's leg. I guess I have a different outlook on life from the ones who're complaining about the pic.

:shrug:

to go get their eyes examined. :freak:

Glad the man is going to be okay.

God bless all of them and God bless those that saw the image as wrong for what they thought it was exposing. It did expose something, something deep in their wee little minds.

:banghead:

I couldn't believe it when you told me...then I read this:

http://www.sunherald.com/278/story/33614.html

I asked you to read it because I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT, I needed someone else to read and react as you did, just so I could be sure I hadn't lost my mind.

This is my community's newspaper :eyes:

edited to add: :blush:

and I know it was... well, Father, just unzip me and I'll show you what I thought..."

tourniquet out of electric wires -- because he had a three centimeter tear in his femoral (leg) artery and recognized that he was in danger of bleeding to death.

I really could care less if it's a man-made tourniquet or a God-given penis, as long as he is alive.

If a college boy made a tourniquet out of his penis, I so DO NOT want him anywhere near my daughter.

He threw "it" over his shoulder and went as a gasoline pump!

In high school we swam naked in gym class. I guess they don't any more, but anyway one kid in our class named Tex something, was extremely well endowed, as they say. He regularly demonstrated the ability to tie his pecker in a knot.
Needless to say, it got him a lot of attention. ;-)

But that other appendage? No way...

:rofl:

Just kidding. :hi:

Oh... Just kidding!

when we'd swim in the gravel pits you could always count on him to make TWO SPLASHES when he hit the water :)

Then, if you needed to track him in the winter, you just looked for three line in the snow...

Three inches and he probably would not have time to make the tourniquet.

Edited for correction...

Thanks for the nudge!

What if it was a tourniquet made out of a penis? Obviously from Nantucket.

Your turn...

I'm too pooped to pop...

about Nick Ut's Pulitzer-winning photo of the girl who was running from the napalm firebomb behind her?

"Dear Associated Press: In reading your coverage of the recent firebombing of Trang Bang, I noticed that a subject of one of your photos was wearing no clothing."

:banghead:

but young enough to not have any secondary sexual characteristics (or they may have been burned off).

What if she had had breasts and public hair? I do not think the photo would have been published.

would ever have anything to do with our interpretation of human suffering.

It's a shame. We have evolved the tools to control our world but not the wisdom to appreciate its worth.

N/T.

Thanks.

It was the Church Lady?

*gasp* And most of them have gentalia! *gasp* And sometimes, those parts are used for sex, but mostly not!

OMFG. People piss me off. People have sexual bodies that have sex, get over it already, and if you can't, at least look at the fucking context!!

Must be someone who hasn't seen one in way too long.

that'll show those whiners

Glad to know some folks don't lose their priorities in a crisis.

A freakin' mule? Sheesh.

When I first saw the posted pic and enlarged it (sorry... poor choice of words), I thought it was the little pink knob at the top of the victims shorts that was being referred to. I didn't even notice the belt until afterward. :shrug:

There also appears to be a compression mark on his thigh where the tourniquet was originally placed. It looks like it was then moved to the upper thigh.



Either that, or the fellow has a lot to live for.

where Butters gets a throwing star in his eye and everyone's more outraged that Cartman shows his dick on stage than Butters losing an eye

I'm just glad that was a penis, I thought it was his intestine at first.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173350800875

Tourniquets saved the life of a Virginia Tech student whose photo was widely used across the nation yesterday and today.

The photo appeared on Page A5 of today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch print edition and on Page One of The TD’s Extra print edition yesterday about the massacre.

The student, an Eagle Scout, wrapped a wire cord around his leg to staunch the bleeding, Dr. Stoeckle said. When emergency medical technicians arrived, they placed a tourniquet belt around the leg and saved his life, the physician said. The belt can be seen on the student’s leg in the photo.

“He was an incredible guy,” said Dr. Stoeckle, who declined to name the student because of privacy concerns, although the student was identified later by his parents. Without the student’s own treatment and the technicians’ action, there’s a good chance he would have died, Dr. Stoeckle said.

Americans have genitals

I thought the Puritans had resolved this problem....

The people that complained about the young mans genitals showing are

SICK FUCKS...

To over look the Humanity in this picture in favor of complaining about inadvertent

nudity is just fucking sick what in the name of fuck is Wrong with these uptight assholes

GAWD!!