AFTER DEADLINE
Photograph disturbing, compelling
By Jim Kelly
The decision to run a front-page photograph that is graphic in its portrayal of violence is never made lightly.
On Wednesday evening, a group of editors huddled around the news desk where our front page is laid out and discussed the pros and cons of running a photo of one of the victims of the shooting at the Pali Golf Course.
We bought a group of photos from a person who was there. The one that best captured the gravity of this terrible event showed one of the victims on the ground, shirtless, surrounded by onlookers and medical technicians who were treating him. While there is little blood visible, the man's anguished face is clearly visible.
Editor Saundra Keyes then asked the question we always consider: How would we feel if we were the relatives of this man and saw this photo in the newspaper?
It's a tough question to get around, and it's usually followed by several seconds of silence. We know what the answer is — we would probably be devastated.
So the next question is whether the news value of the photograph, the significance of the event, compels us to publish it, even though we know it will cause pain to some people and will be disturbing to some readers.
In this case, the answer was yes, though I know some of you strongly disagreed with that decision.
The photo illustrated the biggest news event in Hawai'i that day, a startling attack of extreme brutality in the parking lot of a public place with scores of people around. Also, the content of the photo was not gruesome or shocking to the point of being tasteless.
"Horrifying," "disrespectful," "irresponsible," "a terrible mistake," were among the phrases I heard from some of the readers who called or wrote.
As I told some of those folks, I don't know if it makes them feel any better to know that we had a long and serious discussion about whether to publish the photo on the front page. We don't simply shrug and thoughtlessly run anything we get our hands on.
We're not trying to shock or titillate. We're not trying to "sell papers." Ultimately our job is to provide an accurate, truthful and complete account of the events in our community. Some of those events are disturbing, bloody, heartbreaking. In this case, I believe we did the right thing by giving readers an unfiltered glimpse of the presence of big-city violence in our usually peaceful island community.
