Freedom to photograph

Picture: CreativeCommons.org

No one denies that it is important to discuss whether or not a college degree is worth all the money thrown in to it. In today's economy, times are hard, and people appreciate seeing some serious coverage over the issue to help them decide.

People don't seem to enjoy it when college students dress like, well, college students. The Kalamazoo Gazette learned this the hard way after running a front page photo of a woman speaking with a college employee. She was dressed normally, in a t-shirt and jeans, and the shoulder bag crossing her body partially covered up the words 'Kiss My Ass' on the front of her shirt. Partially, but people still noticed.

One reader wrote in to say that the photo "distracts from the integrity of the article". Joyce Pines, Kalamazoo Gazette public editor, noted to Jim Romenesko at Poynter.org that "this vulgarity is so commonly used in speech, online and in print nowadays that it pales in comparison to some of the more notable swear words....Perhaps the best that can be said for the whole situation is that all of us should stop and think about the images we’re projecting".

Are the readers right to be protesting? After all, it is the public newspaper. The phrase is not the most professional thing that should be said to consumers, and after it came out, it was made abundantly clear that readers did not appreciate this kind of language. However, what about the young woman? Doesn't she have the right to wear what she wants in public?

When protesters gather to demand change of the status quo, the majority of Americans will say that they have the right to their free speech, whether or not it is cluttered up with unseemly vocabulary. The Kalamazoo Gazette printed that photograph not because of what the shirt said, but because of what the photo contributed to their news story. It is unfortunate that the shirt slogan took away attention from the real issue at hand.