NO NUDES IS GOOD NEWS

By: Lucia Moses Chicago Tribune Has New Photo Rule


To look at the sexed-up images Americans are bombarded with whenever they go to
the movies, open a magazine, or look at a billboard, one might think they've
grown to accept them. But to some, running the same kind of pictures in the
newspaper goes too far.

That seems to be the case at the Chicago Tribune, which recently ran a
story about a controversial photo, "Yo Mama's Last Supper," at a Brooklyn Museum
of Art exhibition. That work is an installation of five color photos reworking
DaVinci's "Last Supper." In the center panel portraying Jesus Christ is the
artist, Rene Cox - in full-frontal nudity.

Believing it was necessary to show the photo to tell the full story,
Tribune editors ran a photo inside, in black and white. But the tiny
11/2-inch image of the stark-naked artist was still big enough to offend a dozen
or so readers, who called or wrote to protest.

Tribune Editor Ann Marie Lipinski was busy with other things that day and
didn't see the photo before it ran. That won't happen again, Public Editor Don
Wycliff said. There's a new rule at the Tribune: from now on, no photos
of nudes will run in the paper without her approval.

The "Last Supper" photo wasn't the only one that provoked controversy at the
Tribune that week. Five days earlier, its Sunday magazine ran a spring
fashion spread that showed a woman wearing an open jacket with nothing
underneath. It was pretty demure by the standards of The New York Times
Magazine - or those of network TV, for that matter - but a handful
of people called or wrote calling it too racy.



Lucia Moses (lmoses@editorandpublisher.com) is an associate editor covering business for E&P.



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