In the newspaper business, we put a lot of emphasis on our photos. We try to capture images of what goes on in our community from day-to-day. Good photos are crucial to a good newspaper. We,, as all newspapers, get a lot of feedback regarding the photos we publish. Some good, some bad.
Sometimes we know we're going to get some flack over photos. If we run an accident photo, particularly if it was a fatal accident, people call and complain. Those are always touchy issues. Our stand is that people have a right to know what it going on in their community -- good, bad, and tragic.
When we ran the photos of the Ultimate Fighting event we got lots of people complaining. It's funny though, when we run pictures of hockey fights we don't get complaints (except, of course, from the teams involved ... bad publicity and all that).
We even got a complaint from someone when we ran a photo of a belly-dancer on the front page recently. The woman scolded us because she has children in her house and doesn't want them subjected to such 'trash.'
But the cream of the crop had to come this week when a 'gentleman' called to complain about two photos in the Free Press. He didn't like the photo of Tina Turner impersonator Luisa Marshall on the front page and he didn't like the photo of the Alex Cuba band on Page 3.
Now, I understand that Marshall was wearing, like Turner does, a pretty short skirt, but that what was wrong with the Alex Cuba band?
Well, for lack of a better term – neither them are Caucasian. The caller was wondering what was happening to the city and the Free Press as it was much too 'colourful' for his liking.
A little shocking? Absolutely. However, we have a standing offer to the gentleman that if he wants to come down to the Free Press office with his gown and pointy white hood on, we'd be happy to take his picture and put it on the front page.