Dennis Britton’s Worst Decision?
When Hewitt’s copy came in on November 28, the sports desk had the bright idea of showing Jackson in a Jason mask. Alan Henry, the deputy managing editor for sports, said OK, and the next morning’s Sun-Times carried what the art department worked up, a doctored photo of Jackson on the mound, his face hidden in white.
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The next morning the editor of the Sun-Times didn’t come close to laughing. “It’s not fair to our readers,” Dennis Britton told us later. “There are too many people who believe what they see–they are not sophisticated processors of information. And there are newspaper conventions we ask our readers to accept. One is that we present things in as detached a manner as possible. That’s why we label ‘news analysis.’ And unless we tell them otherwise, we owe it to them to present a photograph as the shutter clicks.”
Britton called in Henry, and their conversation, we understand, was a noisy one. Then Britton posted a memorandum. It said, “Our readers expect and deserve photographic images that exactly reflect the scene depicted. There may be times when a gag photo or a distorted image might be considered to illustrate a feature, but never will we publish such a photograph without the explicit approval of the managing editor, executive editor, or editor. We owe far more to our readers than what we delivered this week. I am disappointed.”
Britton thanked Steinberg for his thoughts.
But if Henry was on thin ice, why did Britton give him the sports department just two weeks before? Now we know what he thinks of Sports, some sportswriters are grousing. Don Snider was the incumbent executive sports editor who’d kept his title but lost his authority and office to Henry. Now Snider’s back in charge, even though Britton obviously isn’t happy with him. No, it’s not a comfortable situation.
Departure of ‘Commerce’
