DATE: Sunday, June 15, 1997                 TAG: 9706130019

SECTION: COMMENTARY              PAGE: J5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: LYNN FEIGENBAUM

                                            LENGTH:   96 lines

REPORT TO READERS CONTROVERSY BORN IN FEATURE PHOTO

A dance troupe that appears to perform naked. A gay couple hugging. A suggestive beach sculpture. Fish with bloody lesions. A belly dancer entertaining senior citizens.

Those images all made section fronts of the newspaper this week. On the Richter Scale of Controversy, rate them Y for yawn. Sure, a few readers grumbled or giggled about one or the other, but there was hardly a ripple.

That was not the case last weekend. On Saturday, a Daily Break feature on natural childbirth shocked and dismayed dozens of readers. As usual, it wasn't the words but the image - a color photo showing a woman just after birth, blood on the sheets beneath her, legs spread, her husband videotaping the scene.

The photo was one of five on two inside pages - not the biggest, but not the smallest, either. And many readers felt it was inappropriate in the newspaper.

I agree, though not for most of the reasons suggested by many callers - that it was ``lewd'' or ``disgusting'' or ``an insult to women.'' It was a very special moment in this family's life. But it was not one that many readers are comfortable sharing, especially with their children, and we should not impose this on them.

``Having personally experienced two natural childbirths and breastfeeding, I appreciated the content of the article but not the pictures,'' wrote Mary C. Snow of Virginia Beach. ``Is nothing sacred or personal anymore?''

Not much. And several readers wondered, what next? Would we print photos of people going to the bathroom? Having sex?

``I am far from being a prude and I can appreciate art for its sake but, honestly, I think this went too far for a public medium,'' e-mailed a North Carolina reader. ``I would be interested in knowing who or how many professional people on staff reviewed this layout before printing.''

Several editors, actually, but there was surprisingly little discussion about the photos. Nothing really explicit showed and, apparently, the mom's post-birth position on the bed didn't raise any concerns.

Modern technology also intervened. With reduced-size, black-and-white page proofs, the blood stains didn't stand out.

But that's neither here nor there. There has been plenty of newsroom discussion on the reproduction of crime scenes and of photos showing people at very private moments. Surely a photo-essay on childbirth deserved more scrutiny than it got.

Debra Gordon, the reporter who wrote the story and a strong believer in portraying life as it is, wasn't uncomfortable with the photos. She's been through this sort of flap before.

Gordon's 1995 feature on a daughter tending her mother, who had Alzheimer's disease, was also hotly controversial - again, not the writing but the photo. It showed a loving moment between the two but the ailing mother was wearing adult diapers, and many readers were outraged.

``I feel that our readers sometimes expect us to sanitize life,'' said Gordon. ``And the fact is, birth and death and illness - the topics about which I write - are messy and ugly and painful. As a daily newspaper, I feel it is our duty to clearly and honestly portray the life in our community.''

Gordon felt the picture of the new mom, Stacey Conlogue, was beautiful. ``It was beautiful that she was nursing her daughter for the first time, an emotional and important moment that her husband wanted to capture on the video.''

She also feels the couple should be commended for their openness. ``It took a great deal of courage and unselfishness to allow two strangers - and half a million readers - to share the most intimate and personal moment a couple can have,'' said Gordon.

Told about the reader reaction, Conlogue was surprised anyone would be upset.

``To me, it's all part of life,'' she told Gordon. ``You don't have babies clothed, even though the television depicts it that way.''

Unfortunately, all this discussion takes away from the story's impact and even from the main photo, on the front page, which shows the exhausted mom holding her still-glossy newborn, flanked by the midwife and her elated husband.

That photo said it all so well. So where do we draw the line?

It depends on the individual case. But I think we can serve reality, in all its grittiness, without going out of our way to lay bare, figuratively or literally, the lives of the people we cover.

REMEMBERING D-DAY. At least a half-dozen readers complained that The Pilot didn't have anything about the invasion of Normandy on June 6.

Well, that's not quite accurate. The comic strip ``Peanuts'' had a touching panel showing GI Snoopy swimming toward the beach through booby-trapped waters.

But why no stories? Truth is, we're great at covering milestone anniversaries, but the ones that fall in between - like this year's 53rd anniversary of D-Day - tend to get overlooked, unless there's a noteworthy local or national celebration.

Military writer Jack Dorsey can reel off all the milestones that have been covered by The Pilot in recent years: the 5th anniversary of Desert Storm, the 25th anniversary of the Vietnam War, the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. And just last Sunday, a Daily Break feature relived the friendly fire attack on the U.S. Navy ship Liberty 30 years ago.

But a generation of Americans remembers these battles and wars every year, not just on the ``special'' dates. And their calls and letters (see two on the facing page) are a reminder that they want us to remember, as well.

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