Visual Editors

12 Responses to “Saddam hanged: Newspaper front pages”

1. 1 Ernie Smith
   Dec 30th, 2006 at 3:47 pm

   One thing that I found a little curious about today’s front pages is how many used the same image of Saddam. Surely, for a man with such a long and arduous history with our country, we’d have more diversity than that in our photo choices.

   The Philadelphia Daily News had the best hed that gets your attention, the Chicago Trib had the best play, and the Vancouver Sun used the best photo of him.

2. 2 Ken H.
   Dec 30th, 2006 at 4:00 pm

   To be blunt:
   Really like the arizona daily star (top row, 2nd from left); the blaring point type tells you the news (saddam’s dead) and the photo gives more ([most of] the people of Iraq are happy).

   Seems like most papers were redundant in their head and art* (head saying saddam’s dead and the photo saying just that the story has something to do with saddam).

   I mean, sure, photo of the deceased is par for the “guy’s dead” stories, but aren’t we supposed to being giver the readers more with the art?

   And for those papers with big pics of saddam: it’s hardly the case that he gets the big photo out of respect.

   *But the san antonio did a great job with their round-up intro and boxes that lead to more content.

3. 3 Paul Wallen
   Dec 30th, 2006 at 6:04 pm

   The front pages that stand out to me:

   1.) San Antonio Express News. Surprising but right on target dominant visual. Crisp short form editing delivers lots of info on the front but moves you along quickly and piques your curiosity to read more inside. Not traditional narrative here, but lots of storytelling. And lots of room left over for other news. Nicely, nicely done.

   2.) Boston Globe. As Alan Jacobson discusses on his site, we’ve pretty much seen all these lead photos. Probably several times. Sometimes it’s almost a reflex to go with a big splash photo. And believe me, I love big photos as much as the next guy. But what is informative or surprising about these five or six column images? Not much. The Globe treatment gave me something that felt new and intriguing on the front. Traditionally, this line up of Saddam at different ages would probably go inside as a supporting element. Kudos to the Globe for a nice photo edit, recognizing it as the most intriguing visual that sets a tone for the day’s news and putting it on the front.

   3.) Hartford Courant. Among a sea of headlines like “Hussein Hanged,” “Saddam Executed,” “Hanged,” “Executed,” etc., I just thought the Courant’s headline, display text and photo edit nailed what this story is really about: “GRIM ERA ENDS.” Yes, Saddam was executed. We all knew it was coming, we knew exactly when it was going to happen and by the time the paper hit the streets anybody with a pulse knew he was dead. So for a next day’s paper, I think it’s all about looking back and looking forward. That’s what the Courant’s presentation and editing emphasized.

   4.) Philadelphia Daily News. I’m sorry. I know they get to play by different rules than the rest of us. I know humor is inappropriate for a story about an important execution. I know it’s offensive and juvenile and not “serious journalism.” But you know what, it got a genuine emotional reaction out of me. And that’s something that a newspaper front page doesn’t inspire very often. Do I think we should all start putting these audacious headlines on our broadsheet front pages? Of course not. But I also think a tiny dose of this kind of irreverant humor in the appropriate situations could bring a lot of life to front pages that often cause me to nod off while looking through the Newseum site. We’ve been trying so hard for so many years not to get negative reactions from readers that we’ve just about given them permission to ignore us. Just a thought.

4. 4 Doug
   Dec 31st, 2006 at 1:53 am

   I’m all for pages that pop and all for doing something that’s different and attracts attention. But I think that with a historical event such as this that it’s improper, not to mention severely editorializing, to run with a headline like “Yo, Saddam … Say Hi to Hitler.”

   Did it get a reaction out of me? Of course, as one other poster pointed out. Sure did. Was it different? You betcha. But is it proper? No. We as a whole may not like the guy, and we as a whole know his crimes, but it’s not up to the newspaper to decide that and that headline crosses that line.

   The Beaver County (PA) Times cover in that gallery — Baghdead — well, there’s nothing editorially wrong with that. But whoever designed the cover and had the final editorial say — the card cut in half and the headline — well, it was just plain silly and childish to go that route.

   The papers that did the simple treatment and told it like it was … that’s still the way to go. Yes, newspapers need to step it up and embrace convergance between Web and print. That’s the future. And tabloids are tabloids and I have nothing against them. Again, it’s the editorializing and the downright silliness of those two papers I mentioned.

5. 5 Nicole
   Dec 31st, 2006 at 2:21 pm

   What a strange juxtaposition on the front of the San Francisco Chronicle of the cutout of Saddam and the cutout of Steve Jobs. A bit jarring, if you ask me.

   I liked the Boston Globe’s treatment - could have gone a bit bigger with the photo gallery, but it worked for me.

   And “Baghdead???” Just ugh.

6. 6 Autumn
   Jan 2nd, 2007 at 12:14 am

   I’m in Texas on vacation and happened to grab the Houston Chronicle the day after Saddam was hanged.

   They were the only paper I saw (which admittedly was only a handful) that told about the other people who were also executed. Not that the general public would have heard of the others executed necessarily, but I thought “wow, other people were executed from this trial.” It was something I didn’t see on any other news outlets either, so they were really telling me something I hadn’t already heard about.

   Just an observation.

7. 7 Denise Covert
   Jan 2nd, 2007 at 2:43 pm

   I mentioned this in the comments over at NewsDesigner, and it’s not as apparent here as there, but anyone notice how many major papers led with “Hussein hangs”? (There are more than half a dozen on Mark’s site.) Do we all just chuck the stylebook out the window for the lame cause of alliteration?

   Secondly, re: The Phila. Daily News and some strong reactions to it: Is there some big marble slab somewhere — Columbia, Mizzou or Medill — in which it’s inscribed that WE MUST BE OBJECTIVE AT ALL TIMES OR AMERICAN JOURNALISM WILL IMPLODE?

   Look at UK tabloids, especially in London. There are tons of them — and they’re all doing well. (As far as I know.) And they are not afraid to say what they think. I understand most American papers are owned by large corporations — but the PDN is not. Nor is my paper. (Though a headline like that would never run on our front page. However, you’d be pretty shocked by what lands in the unsigned editorials.)

   What I’m saying is, I think we’re too afraid to be honest with our readers. We get locked into an ivory tower until we can’t relate to the real people we’re supposed to be communicating with. We’re too used to talking AT people from some position of authority, instead of WITH them. (I’m reminded of this more and more as I try to engage reporters in conversations at holiday parties.)

   Would it kill us to have a soul?

8. 8 David W.
   Jan 2nd, 2007 at 5:29 pm

   I think it’s important to note that many of the papers that used “Hussein” rather than Saddam have always done so, regardless of AP style. And though it is weird for us to see the same Saddam photo again and again, most people really aren’t gonna see more than a few newspapers, either. And it is a good photo for design purposes. But I did rather like The Oregonian’s and Boston Globe’s use of several photos. And the Courant’s different approach altogether was refreshing.

9. 9 martin gee
   Jan 2nd, 2007 at 9:30 pm

   I still think the pdn head is stupid and jingoistic. yeah, it got my attention but after thinking about it for a second, I’m like uh, ok. someone said that tabs play by different rules. Where can I get a copy of those rules?

   Sure, I am all for papers to have a soul and attitude. But look at the bigger picture. Read all the editorials and analysis from that day and week. Sure, the execution is a “milestone” but at what cost? U.S. deaths hit 3000, thousands of injured, hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths, the astronomical daily and total financial cost of the war, the millennium, old sectarian violence that won’t be called a civil war until they break out blue and grey uniforms?, etc…

   la times editorial: death of a dictator
   http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-saddam30dec30,0,7917525.story?coll=la-news-comment-editorials

   mercury news: bay area mixed on dictator’s hanging
   http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/16350862.htm

   Our papers need to discuss the issues and bigger picture and not treat world events like pro-wrestling. Of course, we must be honest with readers but can’t over simplify things.

10. 10 Patrick Garvin
    Jan 4th, 2007 at 8:42 pm

    The images of an executed dictator are not the same as images of an assassinated president, but I’m willing to play devil’s advocate and put the question out there:

    How do our philosophies of showing dead Saddam differ from our philosophies of showing, say, the Kennedy assassination on the Zapruder film? They’re not the same thing, of course, but I thought I’d pose the question.

11. 11 Roy Mathew
    Feb 19th, 2007 at 7:28 am

    Here is something about how others viewed the hanging.

    http://cyberjournalist.org.in/saddam.html

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