Photo, headline gave some readers offense…

Does a newspaper uphold community standards when it publishes a photograph of a painting of a nude man curled around a fully dressed woman? Did editors go too far when they quoted a filmmaker relatively unknown to the public using the word “suck” as slang in a way that, to some readers, indicated a sexual application?

Readers raised those issues last week after an Oct. 20 Variety cover showed a takeoff on a famous 1980 Annie Leibowitz photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono that ran on Rolling Stone’s cover. The takeoff appeared in the …

Ombudsmen and the bottom line

(This article is reprinted from the October 1995 issue of The World and I.)

By Lynne Enders Glaser

From a newspaper’s standpoint, having a designated person on staff to hear and respond to readers adds more to its worth than good will.

It boosts the bottom line.

Now, I can’t prove that through time-and-motion studies or court-case analyses that I’ve read. But, using an empirical base, I believe that valid economic argument exists for the news ombudsman, and it’s my hope that the financial types who control most of this nation’s dailies will someday wake up to that fact.

If …

Why does a newspaper need an ombudsmen?…

During the four years I have filled the position of ombudsman of the Star-Telegram, I have had quite a few editors of other newspapers tell me:

“We don’t need an ombudsman at my paper. My editors and I can handle the readers ourselves.”

That sounds great in theory. But on a practical basis, I wonder just how well these busy editors handle their readers?

I am one of the few people in this business — only 35 U.S. papers have ombudsmen — who has been both an editor and an ombudsman. This gives …

Strip club story wasn’t a tease…

Did The Post’s Accent section go too far with its “Naked Ambition” feature? Sheri Bautz, an associate pastor at the First Free Methodist Church in West Palm Beach, is certain of it. So is Ann Kucik, who said she was calling on behalf of many other women.

They called to complain about the Sept. 28 article that pulled the covers off the mind-set of some local strip-club dancers. We generally disagreed. But the Listening Post is a forum for readers’ complaints. Summarizing theirs:

“Glamorized this profession”….”As working women and mothers, we have been put …

What was wrong with that picture?…

What was wrong with that picture?

Oh, only everything, said about two dozen readers who called this corner (and additional folks phoned others here) to condemn this journal after viewing the large color photo of a young actress in a provocative pose and the skimpiest of costumes on the Sept. 22 Show Weekend cover.

The headline across the lower part of the photo read, “On with the show,” and a subheading added, “Teen idol Elizabeth Berkley headlines the year’s most controversial film, ‘Showgirls.’” Well, the photograph immediately became the most controversial of the year …