Opinionline: Subway photo stirs controversy

Alex Garcia, Chicago Tribune: "One of my first picture editors was always clear, saying, 'Human being first, photographer second. But still try to get the picture.' Should the freelance photographer have taken the picture of Ki-Suck Han in the path of the oncoming subway train? Should the picture of him, seconds before his death, be published? ... If you read through the news articles about the New YorkPost uproar, you won't get closer to answering that, because journalism is about presenting two sides of a story without judgment. But that's hardly satisfying, especially when you're outraged and hoping for a better way to reach a consensus for the future."

David Carr,The New York Times: "The Post milked the death of someone for maximum commercial effect, with a full-page photo inside of his frozen helplessness, replete with helpful pointers to show the train bearing down and, on the Web, a video about the photographer's experience. ... The marginal civic good served by the story — watch yourself on the subway platform — could have been performed in far more honorable ways. He ended up run over twice."

Michael Shaw, BagNews.com: "Beyond the pitched cries of editorial impropriety ... what the photo offers is not the story of what happened so much as its consequence. What's missing in the photo is 'the perp,' the push (onto the track). There is video of arguing (between the 'perp' and victim), but the infamous photo itself is almost deafeningly solitary, as if Han got himself in this death trap alone. Thus, if there's a deeper critique of the photo, it's that the catalyst and real subject of concern is missing."

R. Umar Abbasi, freelance photographer who took the picture, New York Post: "The announcement had come over the loudspeaker that the train was coming — and out of the periphery of my eye, I saw a body flying through the air and onto the track. I just started running. I had my camera up ... and I just kept shooting and flashing, hoping the train driver would see something and be able to stop. I had no idea what I was shooting. ... The victim was so far away from me, I was already too far away to reach him when I started running. The train hit the man before I could get to him, and nobody closer tried to pull him out."

Kelly McBride, Poynter.org: "(Post) editors aren't saying much about why they published it. Maybe they were thinking about iconic images like Nick Ut's 1972 photo of children running from the chemical attacks in Vietnam or Kevin Carter's 1993 picture of a vulture hovering near a starving Sudanese child. (In) those cases, editors could argue the photos held significant journalistic purpose of informing the public of gross tragedies. ... This photo doesn't have any of those redeeming journalistic qualities."

Christopher Zara,International Business Times: "Gruesome imagery is increasingly becoming a part of the everyday news cycle in an age when each of us is equipped with a portable camera at all times. Now more than ever, professional and citizen journalists alike are capturing everything from altercations to police beatings to homicides. That, combined with news outlets' ever-growing appetite for readers and ratings, means there will always be temptation for journalists to opt for the easy shock."