Empathy is the human skill of feeling another’s pain. It is one of several glues that hold together civilization.
The word comes from the German term Einfahlung. Now, many years of reading Mad magazine tempt me to make some smart remark about what that word means in German (especially because it has such great possibilities as one of Don Martin’s sound effects words), but smarty-pants stuff in Salt Substitute ruffled readers this week, so I will not make any German jokes.
But I will use a cartoon character to make a point. The difference between Wiley E. Coyote being blown to bits by an Acme nuclear bomb and the photo of the deer leg that was printed on the front of the Salt Substitute section in Tuesday’s Salt Lake Tribune is plain to see: The coyote bit is funny because we know it is not real; the deer leg photo, coupled with the caption, is not because we know it is real.
To make it even simpler, we know we will see the Coyote reassembled and ordering some other stupid contraption from the Acme Manufacturing Co. again. We know the deer is dead.
Our readers understood that distinction completely when they started e-mailing and calling on Tuesday morning.
Some threatened to cancel subscriptions, but most were more thoughtful.
One woman wrote:
” . . . Your publishing of the ‘outtakes’ photo of the remains of a deer who died a horrible death, and the glib little caption beneath it, courtesy of Trent Nelson, have shaken my faith in the Tribune as any source of information and entertainment. The next time I want to look at a photo that is not only not newsworthy, but totally disturbing and heartbreaking, I will be sure to look in The Salt Lake Tribune. Meanwhile, I won’t waste my time.”
Another couple wrote: “Please include the two of us as devoted Tribune readers who were offended by the ‘humorous’ picture of the remains of the deer who became trapped and died. I find it hard to believe that even the teenage boys who appear to be the target of Salt Substitute’s humor would find that amusing. Oh, but the caption was so darn witty! How do they do it? Nothing like a horrible death to tickle the funny bone.”
There are two great tragedies attached to this photograph and caption.
First, Trent Nelson, who took the picture, has a great eye for seeing events, patterns and small bits of life that many photographers miss. What he found in this picture could have made a bold statement about some of the horrifying things that can occur when civilization encroaches on traditionally wild areas. A caption that described that problem would have brought focus to a problem that worries many Utahns. But the attempt at irony conveyed in Nelson’s caption fell flat. As many readers pointed out, that animal died a terrible death.
Second, publishing the photo and caption in Salt Substitute was not edgy. It was simply over the edge. And there were several editors involved in approving that publication who need to rethink what is apparently their contempt of readers.
Part of the art/science of editing a newspaper is understanding the psyche of your readers. Sometimes it is necessary to publish photos that might cause queasiness. Think about what impact photographs of victims in Hitler’s concentration camps might have had in terms of free people understanding what was going on in Axis nations early in the war. Certainly, such photos would upset readers, but they would upset readers in an intelligent way.
Printing the photo of the dead deer leg with a thoughtful caption might have involved readers in a serious conversation about what can be done to minimize harm as development claims lands heretofore wild.
But printing the photo with a caption that anthropomorphizes the deer in a silly way and mocks the action of a climber pinned by a boulder is a manifestation of arrogance and contempt on the part of those involved in approving the picture and cutline.
Here’s hoping they learn quickly where lies the line between what’s funny and what’s not.
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The Reader Advocate’s phone number is 801-257-8782. Write to the Reader Advocate, The Salt Lake Tribune, P.O. Box 867, Salt Lake City, Utah 84110. reader.advocate@sltrib.com
103 Number of readers who called about the dead deer photo in Salt Substitute
83 Number of readers who threatened to cancel over the dead deer photo
18 Number of readers who were upset about a letter to the editor on Sean Hannity
5 Number of readers who think only world or national news should go on the front page
