Coverage of the Trolley Square shooting tragedy and its aftermath has brought wide response from Salt Lake Tribune readers. One point of contention was the printing of a picture of the shooter in an open casket before his burial in Bosnia. One subscriber summarized the reaction of scores of others:
“I am still in shock over the photo the Tribune printed of Sulejman Talovic’s body in the casket in Bosnia. I have never even imagined such poor taste. How could the Tribune justify printing such a thing? I read the Tribune the first thing every morning. I still have that image in my mind.
“That family is already torn apart. I am appalled at the Tribune’s lack of compassion. My first thought is to cancel my subscription immediately. I am an adult. I can’t imagine the feelings a child will have seeing that photo. I feel that the Tribune has sensationalized this story over the edge. I hope this is not a trend.”
Tribune Executive Editor Tom Baden explained the decision by a group of senior editors to run the stark photograph – depicting the young man in an open casket as his mother collapses into the arms of another mourner – in Wednesday’s edition:
“We knew it would be a disturbing photograph for some readers, but we felt it was important to tell the story. It was necessary because the photograph captured the family’s anguish in a way no words
could. We did not publish the photo lightly.”
The error that was committed, Baden said, was omitting an alert on the front page about the picture. “In the past, we have put warnings on the front page letting readers know there was a photograph inside that might be disturbing.” This allows readers a choice about viewing the picture themselves or shielding their children from it.
“For that omission, we apologize,” Baden said.
The reader quoted above understands the heart-rending scenario the Talovic family has endured, but some readers did not until they viewed that photograph. Sometimes documenting moments from an ongoing story is a gritty exercise to do and to view.
Coffee with that?: An advertisement for a coffee shop that ran in The Mix section of the March 9 paper drew sharp response from several dozen readers who were offended by the depiction of an Angel Moroni statue.
One reader expressed her outrage particularly well:
“Showing the Angel Moroni with his trumpet bent upward so a disembodied hand can pour coffee from a drip pot into his mouth is offensive. The statue on the top of the Temple is meaningful for Mormons. To show this statue drinking coffee is not playful or cute. It is hurtful. Why would you accept such an ad?”
In an area with such a large proportion of LDS members, it is an offensive ad, since many Mormons follow the Word of Wisdom’s call for total abstinence from coffee, tea, alcohol and tobacco. To portray the Angel Moroni breaking this word is not funny; it is offensive. A bar ad in Boston showing Jesus doing shots with scantily clad college coeds would offend the many Catholics in that area.
That said, the ad does not call for illegal activity, does not advertise an illegal substance and apparently is not fraudulent since the joint in question does seem to serve coffee. Since it follows the advertising rules, the Newspaper Agency Corp. (the company that sells the ads, prints and distributes both the Tribune and the Deseret Morning News) would accept the ad.
As I said recently, the consumer can influence a company’s advertising by writing the company or by refusing to buy the company’s products.
