BY DAN
KENNEDY
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Friday, October 22, 2004
THE HERALD
APOLOGIZES. Editorial director Ken Chandler has issued this
statement:
The Herald today published
two graphic photos that angered and upset many in our community.
For that I apologize. Our aim was to demonstrate this terrible
tragedy as comprehensively as possible. In retrospect, the images
of this unusually ugly incident were too graphic.
Word is that this will appear in
tomorrow's edition as well.
Good. But I'd like to know how
Chandler's going to make sure this doesn't happen again.
posted at 5:02 PM |
5 comments
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link
5 Comments:
The fact that the Herald published 'offensive' photos is no surprise. I find most of their content to be more deliberately incendiary, provocative and ridiculous rather than 'offensive.'
Their apology will provide little comfort for the family of Victoria Snelgrove, I’m sure.
Her brother, Michael Snelgrove, said WRKO-AM radio yesterday that his sister "was not a troublemaker but an innocent bystander" who was merely "stuck in the mob." Evidently she couldn't leave the area (because her car was blocked) so they just hopped out of the car and watched the ensuing melee.
What a senseless tragedy for the Snelgrove family to have to endure…
The previous comment quotes Michael Snelgrove on WRKO and, assuming the quote is accurate, I find it rather disingenous. There were NO "innocent bystanders" around Fenway Park at 1:30am, more than 90 minutes after the game ended. Certainly not 90 minutes after the game ended, when the game wasn't even at Fenway. Everyone who was in the Fenway Park region that entire evening came down there with one of two goals: to either celebrate a historic Red Sox victory or lament another heartbreaking defeat. Either way, it was to have emotions run high in a mob...something that even Snelgrove (a journalism major, no less) should've well known after all the publicity about the Superbowl riots.
I also agree that the photos of her in the street are graphic, yes.
Shocking, yes.
Gruesome, even...yes.
But I also feel that they were 100% NECESSARY and I think the Mayor's office should be congratulating the Herald for having the courage (well, at least having the brass monkeys) to print it front-page.
Why? Because this sort of shocking journalism will get EVERYONE thinking that maybe going down to Fenway Park during the World Series to get drunk and go reveling isn't such a good idea after all.
I imagine the Herald's motives were nothing so noble...they probably wanted to shock and titillate and hope to sell more papers because of it. But I've been saying since the first Patriots post-Superbowl riot that if the Red Sox ever win the World Series, the whole city would go up in flames. I think the Herald has done something that will go a long way towards preventing that. They have taken one girl's tragic death and, maybe, helped prevent God-knows how much more property damage, injuries and deaths over the coming week.
- AR
Did you notice in today's Globe that Channel 7 was "shocked, shocked" about what the Herald did. What hypocrisy. This from "if it bleeds, it leads".
The Herald is and enjoys being a sleaze rag. It's entire existence is based on the soiled and sordid.
Regarding the comment above: "There were NO "innocent bystanders" around Fenway Park at 1:30am, more than 90 minutes after the game ended. Certainly not 90 minutes after the game ended, when the game wasn't even at Fenway."
--An 18 year old girl who's car is blocked by a mob, who gets out of her car and is then shot in the eyeball with a so-called "non lethal weapon" and consequently dies was indeed an "innocent bystander."
The trigger-happy cop's own commisioner 'took full responsibility' for her death (something I'm quite sure the comissioner certainly would not admit, had the dead girl been anything but an "innocent bystander.")
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MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
