Letters to the Editor
Sunday, May 23, 2004

Half-page photo was in bad taste To the editor:I was very disappointed to see the photograph you chose to put on the top banner of the Sunday Citizen on May 16, and enlarged to a full half-page on the cover of the Arts & Leisure section. I am referring the image of a girl’s feet with red underwear around her ankles, sneakers, and fishnet stockings. The photograph had no accompanying caption, but it was the largest photograph you printed about music video makers and the band.
As an elementary school teacher in Laconia, I am appalled at your choice of imagery. Your Sunday paper comes into the homes of many families with young children. I know children in my class see graphic and inappropriate images everyday on TV. But why does a family paper like the Citizen have to stoop as low as the television producers in order to get people’s attention?
In the advertisements of The Boston Globe and New York Times, I have seen equally inappropriate material for children, but not printed as part of their stories, and not on the front page or front of any section.
The article had nothing to do with Converse sneakers, underwear, or fishnet stockings. The article was about two men trying to get into the music video business. While not as scintillating, wouldn’t it be far more appropriate to photograph Mark Constance and Rick Pickford?
Children are already exposed to too many graphic images of sexuality and violence everyday on TV. Why does the Citizen have to contribute to this tragedy?
Craig Lambert
Laconia 

© 2004 Geo. J. Foster Company