Editorial Why we ran the photo

The Nugget ran a photograph last week of the shrouded body of a young woman on the pavement of Highway 20, after she was hit and killed by a pickup truck.

Several people were outraged that we ran that photograph on page 1. Some demanded an apology to the community.

We recognize that the photograph was disturbing. Images are sometimes disturbing precisely because they convey reality more powerfully than words -- no matter how skillfully or vividly crafted -- can ever do.

No words could have adequately captured that stark finality on a stretch of local road that's as familiar to most of us as our own street. The story told the facts; the photograph told the truth.

One woman told us she thought for hours about the accident after seeing the photograph. She pictured herself, caught up in a moment of beauty and enjoyment and abruptly, violently ... gone.

It wasn't a pleasant experience, she said, but she valued the reminder of how fine and tenuous is the thread that connects us to this world.

Those who accuse us of publishing a potentially traumatic photograph callously, without serious consideration and debate, are wrong. We weigh competing concerns: the power of the image to convey the reality of an event against the possibility that the image will wound the vulnerable.

Because Sisters is such a good place, so filled with joy and a sense of community, we sometimes feel that we are insulated, protected from the pain and mayhem that lie beyond our mountains. We have grown accustomed to seeing shrouded bodies of strangers on the streets of Jerusalem, on the barricades of a protest in Genoa.

Certainly, we in Sisters escape much of the tragedy that forms a daily litany in the rest of the world.

But we are not exempt; we are not immune. Even here, young people, people we know, can be struck down, seemingly at random.

In the past, we pulled a photograph because it explained only part -- a potentially misleading part -- of an event. Even in this case, we chose not to run another photo that still more graphically depicted the tragedy on Highway 20.

We recognize that some people believe that running any photograph could never be appropriate under any circumstances. While that might be easier for all of us, we stand by the decision to publish the photo. At the same time, we respect those who disagree.

Jim Cornelius

Editor