Should This City Room Post About The NY Post's Subway Snuff Photo Have Been Published?

Jacob Dobkin

Published Dec 4, 2012

Modified Dec 5, 2012

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail

Never miss a story

Email address

By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .

Jacob Dobkin

Published Dec 4, 2012

Modified Dec 5, 2012

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail

We rely on your support to make local news available to all

Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

Many have questioned whether it was ethical for the photographer R. Umar Abbasi to take the picture of a man about to be struck by a subway car yesterday, and whether it was right for the Post to publish it. The blogging journalists who run The New York Times' City Room site have polled their readers on these very questions—from their comments, the majority sentiment seems to be that no, it is not acceptable to shoot a picture of someone about to get hit by a train, and it is equally reprehensible to publish it.

But this City Room post raises another question: is it right to use "asking a question" about whether a news outlet should publish a controversial photograph as an opportunity to re-run that very picture (and reap its inevitable page views)? Or is this beneath the level of moral rectitude we expect Times' bloggers to embody? Share your answer in the comments below!

Update: Asked about whether there was any discussion or soul-searching about whether to use the Post cover to illustrate the City Room post about the Post cover, Deputy Metro Editor Wendell Jamieson tells us, "There was a great deal of discussion. In the end, we felt we weren’t doing the readers any service by discussing the picture and not showing it. And it was already all over the place, including on some sites discussing the ethics of publishing it."

Tagged

Exploitation

fatal subway shoving

ki-suk han

media criticism