A kiss is (almost) just a kiss

Posted at 3:16 PM on March 13, 2013 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Colorado's legislature yesterday approved civil unions for same-sex couples and the cover of the Denver Post carried a picture that might've been shocking a few years ago.

But of the 247 comments attached to the online article, only two brought up a gay couple kissing on the front page.

But there must have been more phone calls because the director of newsroom operations at the newspaper this afternoon posted an explanation to readers:

One of the missions as journalists is to take our readers where they can't go, and the speaker's office is definitely one of those places. Ferrandino, who is gay, has been fighting to get this bill passed for at least the last three years, and he spoke eloquently on the subject while the bill was being debated. So it made sense to get his perspective.

Walker captured what photographers and photo editors will describe as a "moment," when a picture shows in a single image the essence of the story. As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

From left, Reps. Paul Rosenthal, D-Denver, Joann Ginal, D-Fort Collins, and Dominick Moreno, D-Commerce City, hold hands Tuesday while listening to comments before a vote on a civil unions bill, which passed. The three lawmakers are gay.

"Ferrandino has been a central part of the entire civil unions debate, for years," Lyons said. "His inclusion feels like the ending to this story, and it would have been remiss to not have him as part of the report."

At least online, more people seemed interested in knowing the story behind the baby bottle. It belongs to the couple's foster child.

(h/t: Romenesko)

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Comments (3)

The Christian Science Monitor has a story that tries to blend the Colorado vote and what happened here in Minnesota. The problem is, they got the MN news wrong. They are (wrongly) reporting that the MN bill has cleared the House and Senate, and on the way to the Governor's desk.

The March 12 story is attributed to AP writer Ivan Moreno. It's still up, and still wrong.

BTW, they use the same photo of the two MN guys with young kids that Bob used in his post the other day.

Posted by Robert Moffitt | March 13, 2013 3:49 PM

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Mr. Moreno is the AP's Denver guy at the statehouse, I believe. Erwin D. Canham is rolling his grave.

I think it was Monitor people slapping their own copy into the AP copy though. None of the Moreno dispatches I saw on the wire had any mention of Minnesota.

Posted by Bob Collins | March 13, 2013 3:59 PM

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Shapley's follow-up, 4 hours after posting the explanation, is good, too.

Update 3:28 p.m.: After reading the comments, I’m altering the headline from “[Picture of Mark Ferrandino kissing partner shows the truth,] no matter how objectionable,” to “[...] even if it offends some.” I’ve certainly dealt with some callers who are upset with the use of the photo, but my intent was not to label the photo (or the act) objectionable. As I’ve often said, everyone needs an editor, and I appreciate the comments. — Lin

Hey, Bob: After using the word homosexual in the earlier post about gay Danish married men's longevity, check out where and how it's been used at the Denver Post in recent years: Not by reporters, not by LGBT people themselves. Consistent with the AP Stylebook since 2006, its time has passed as a workable description of lesbian, gay and bisexual people.

Posted by Bose in St. Peter MN | March 13, 2013 8:07 PM

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