Three days after terrorist attacks shocked the country, President George W. Bush gathered political and religious leaders at Washington National Cathedral.
The president led a national day of prayer and remembrance, and a news photo from that service dominated the next day’s front page.
That photo drew more than 100 complaints.
Certainly, the front-page photos in previous days had been disturbing — fireballs created by hijacked airliners exploding into the World Trade Center and the towers’ collapse.
The soot-covered, shocked survivors.
The grim work by rescue workers who knew that thousands had died, including hundreds of their own.
No readers had complained about those terrible images.
What was it about that Saturday’s front-page picture — under the headline “UNITED WE MOURN” — that resulted in such outrage?
“I never was so disgusted in my life with this paper by the fact that it would print on the front page that picture of (former President Bill) Clinton and his wife and daughter,” a typical caller said. “You can hardly see President Bush and his wife.”
One woman said she would “cancel my paper if you ever run Clinton’s picture again, unless it accompanies his obituary.”
Several callers blamed Clinton for contributing to the world situation that resulted in the attack. Others focused on their loathing of his “immoral, sinful” personal behavior.
Several suggested that the Register editors who selected the picture were engaged in a deliberate effort to promote Clinton and diminish Bush.
“You guys are still upset that Bush won the election,” another typical caller said.
Editor Tonnie L. Katz was one of the editors weighing the photos offered from the prayer service.
“Unity was the theme of the day in the face of this unimaginable tragedy,” she said. “We felt it was critical to show that with the image of our current president and two former presidents standing together.
“I think it’s sad that some people can’t see beyond their personal, political biases. … I feel sorry that people misinterpreted the picture.”
If unity was the theme, editors should have selected a photo from the prayer service taken from an angle that emphasized President Bush, some callers said.
Only one angle was available, said Marcia Prouse, director of photography.
She confirmed in a conversation with a photo editor at The Associated Press in Washington, D.C., that security was tight, given concern that President Bush might be a terrorist target.
Only a handful of news photographers were allowed. They were brought to a fixed position inside the cathedral and could not move around.
From that position, their angle across the front row captured the dignitaries seated in the manner arranged by the White House.
President Bush was on the aisle, then his wife, Laura; then his father and mother, former President George Bush and Barbara Bush; then the Clintons, the former president, his wife, Hillary, a U.S. senator from New York, and their daughter, Chelsea.
The Clintons were present because Bush, in the spirit of national unity, provided the plane that brought them.
It’s sad that some people believe that Register editors would use the tragedy and national day of mourning to promote a partisan agenda.
It’s sadder that some probably believe it still.
