by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
November 2, 2004
In the early morning hours of October 21, thousands of baseball fans took to the streets of Boston to celebrate the victory of their Red Sox over the New York Yankees. When one of the participants refused to obey the directions of a police officer, the officer threw him to the ground and a riot broke out with bottles and rocks being thrown. Police officers fired pepper balls into the crowd to disperse them and one of the projectiles hit Victoria Snelgrove in the eye. Snelgrove later died.
The next day, the Boston Herald published two graphic photos of the 21-year-old journalism student being comforted by a friend or bystander as she lay dying on the ground with blood streaming from her left eye. The publication of those photos caused an immediate uproar and the next day the Herald apologized for showing the graphic pictures.
There can be little argument that the Herald should not have published the photos on the same page that contained the headline “Go Sox”. But was the paper wrong to publish the graphic pictures?
In apologizing to Snelgrove’s family and the newspaper’s offended readers, Editorial Director Ken Chandler said, “Our aim was to illustrate this terrible tragedy as comprehensively as possible and to prevent a repetition by portraying the harsh reality of what can happen when a crowd acts irresponsibly.”
although the Snelgrove family were undoubtedly upset that the publication of photos showing their daughter dying in the streets, it is hardly unusual for journalists to upset families that are suffering from tragedy. Reporters are always shoving microphones and cameras in front of people who have just found out that their child has tragically died and asking them how they feel. There is really not a lot of difference here.
although there was no justification for the Herald to place the explicit photos near the headline “Go Sox”, the paper was right in seeing a higher purpose in their publication. People should be made aware of what can happen when a celebration turns ugly because of the acts of a few rowdies. They should also be aware that when the police are required to use force, that force can never be non lethal (the pepper balls were such that they would have caused only minor injuries to Snelgrove had it struck any other part of her body).
a picture really is worth a thousand words. Viewing the dying Snelgrove brings home what can happen when some idiots choose to get carried away in what was supposed to be a happy, celebratory event.
The cynical will always say that the Herald only published the photos to sell more newspapers. But seeing a young beautiful girl with her whole life and a promising career ahead of her, dying on the street because she decided to celebrate her beloved Red Sox advancing into the World Series, really brought the message home. If the Boston Herald really did believe its initial assessment that publication of the photos were necessary to make the point of how a celebration can turn to tragedy, the paper never should have caved in.