THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 31, 1994 TAG: 9407300447
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LYNN FEIGENBAUM
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
A world in crisis was the theme of Thursday's front page. And certainly nothing could have been more tragic than the plaintive photo of the frail, weeping Rwandan child trying to rouse his sick, perhaps dying, mother. The large color photo dominated all the other crises on the front page.
Like most readers, I got my first glimpse of the page over breakfast coffee. It's always heartbreaking to witness human misery.
Still, I can't agree with readers who wish we'd either avoid or downplay such images. This is real life.
``I know those people are suffering,'' said Dick Doughty, an Eastern Shore resident. ``It hurts me to see the suffering.''
But Doughty said he objects to the media's unrelenting spotlight on that suffering.
And several callers said they didn't want to see scenes of death and suffering over breakfast.
At least we're eating breakfast. No such luck for some Rwandan refugees.
Jeanette Arnold of Virginia Beach was also bothered by the images that have been coming out of Africa.
``I am an African-American woman,'' she said. ``I am extremely disturbed by the daily bombardment in The Virginian-Pilot of color photos and accompanying captions showing black Africans suffering in these countries.''
Arnold called for more balance (``Where there is suffering there is also heroism'') and said she was convinced we would not run such photos, for two weeks and as much as five columns wide, ``if the white race were victims of similar suffering.''
How about Sarajevo? Bosnia?
Janet Pierce of Chesapeake thought ``a smaller, less graphic picture'' of the child would have been enough. But she praised the newspaper for printing a list of aid agencies where readers could make donations.
Agreed. In fact, the list had an instant effect on me: I put down my coffee, rummaged through the garbage and extracted the soggy CARE solicitation that I had tossed out without much thought the night before.
But I also agreed with Vessie Taylor of Portsmouth. To go from the emotional front-page photo to the ghastly Daily Break picture of ``The Mask'' star Jim Carrey was a bit much. ``I don't appreciate being assaulted in this way,'' she said.
Ordinarily, I'd have gotten a chuckle out of Carrey, with his green Silly-Putty face and gargantuan tongue lolling across the table. But not after seeing the photo from Rwanda.
That's a tough problem to prevent. The two sections are assembled independently - news pages on deadline, the Daily Break earlier in the day.
At least one reader didn't have a problem with the front page. That was J.R. Bullington, director of the Center for Global Business and Executive Education at Old Dominion University.
That same day, Bullington had a letter to the editor criticizing an editorial on Rwanda.
``I thought the front page was superb, the coverage of the World Crisis Now,'' said Bullington, a former U.S. ambassador to Burundi.
``The layout idea was absolutely on target, and I think you are to be commended for carrying this kind of important material as opposed to the unimportant things which so often are covered.''
It's raining while I'm writing this column. In fact, it's been raining most afternoons this week. So why, asked a half-dozen readers, does yesterday's rainfall on the Weather page often say .00?
It's a timing problem, laments Randy Jessee, who has somehow inherited weather data along with his other news administration jobs.
``The weather package is based on the official daily report issued by the National Weather Service between 4 and 5 p.m. daily,'' said Jessee. ``All of our heavy rains have hit after that time.''
Can't we update the rainfall? Well, not as easily as you might think. Different pages have different deadlines. But Jessee is looking into it.
Meanwhile, the other rain data - for the month and year - is updated the next day. So count on those numbers to let you know why you're ankle-deep in water when you try to mow the lawn. MEMO: Call the public editor at 446-2475, or send a computer message to
lynn(AT)infi.net. by CNB