N.J. editor responds to reader complaints p. 14

By: Editorial Staff

GLENN RITT, EDITOR of the Re-cord, Bergen County, N.J., responds to reader complaints about his paper's publication of a photo of a dead U.S. soldier being dragged through a crowd of Somalis in a letter that includes the following:
"We truly appreciated the horrifying image of a parent seeing his or her son murdered in this savage way for the first time.
"But, in this journalism business, editors are sometimes faced with decisions that require choosing between immensely powerful arguments.
"Many readers claimed we ran the picture to sell papers. To the contrary, there was true understanding among editors that such a picture would probably do the opposite. Still, it had to run.
"This was a truly historical photograph, not much different from the images we have etched in our memory from Vietnam or the 1960s.
"Like photos from Vietnam or Washington a quarter century ago, this photograph forced everyone to immediately pay attention to a policy gone awry . . . . It instantly forced a nation to concentrate on its foreign policy; it initiated a national debate.
"That picture did all that. Why? Because never in our collective memories ? from Iran to Iraq to Europe during World War II ? was there ever such an image of an American soldier being treated in such an uncivilized way.
"Newspapers chronicle the world often in stark terms. We are messengers, not purveyors; we are vehicles, not actors. And editors are often asked to determine history instantly."
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