Obama State Dept. asked NY Times not to use photo of unconscious Ambassador among photos on web site slide show, Times declined

.
9/12/12, "Update: The Times Denies State Department Request to Remove Photo From Web Site," NY Times Public Editor, M. Sullivan

"The State Department asked The New York Times on Wednesday afternoon to remove a photograph of the dying ambassador to Libya from a gallery on the newspaper’s Web site. The ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, was killed Tuesday in an attack on the American Consulate in Libya.

The Times did not comply with the request, citing the news value of the Agence France-Presse photograph.

In The Times’s response to the State Department, Philip B. Corbett, associate managing editor for standards, wrote:

"We understand and are deeply sensitive to the grief and anger surrounding the killing of Ambassador Stevens in Libya. Times editors had long discussions about the decision to include a photo of him after the attack as part of our online report.

Such decisions are never easy, and this one was harder than most. But this chaotic and violent event was extremely significant as a news story, and we believe this photo helps to convey that situation to Times readers in a powerful way. On that basis, we think the photo was newsworthy and important to our coverage. We did, however, try to avoid presenting the picture in a sensational or insensitive way.

Unfortunately, our news coverage sometimes demands visual depictions of terrible events — bombing victims, famine victims, crime victims, fallen soldiers. We regret the pain this can cause to families and to other readers, but we feel the decision in this case is the right one."

The government’s request, according to the managing editor Dean Baquet, was based on “an emotional argument.”

However, as of early Wednesday evening, Times editors were not planning to use the photo in Thursday’s print edition, Mr. Baquet said.

He said the story had moved forward, beyond the point where that photo was as important to the coverage as it was Wednesday morning.

“Thursday’s paper will be a full 24 hours later,” he said. “It’s a second-day story now” with a different kind of emphasis beyond the immediate news of Mr. Stevens’s death."

--------------------------------------------------------

9/13/12, "L.A. Times, NY Daily News feature graphic Libya ambassador photo on front page," Poynter.org, Beaujon, Moos

"The New York Times said Wednesday that it was not planning to use a graphic photo on its Thursday front page of Christopher Stevens, the U.S. Ambassador killed in Libya this week. “The story had moved forward,” Public Editor Margaret Sullivan was told by Managing Editor Dean Baquet, “beyond the point where that photo was as important to the coverage as it was Wednesday morning” when the Times included it in an online gallery despite a request from the State Department to take it down.

Other newspapers did feature the photo of Stevens on their front pages Thursday, including the New York Daily News, the Los Angeles Times and el Nuevo Herald (shown below). Herald sister paper The Miami Herald used a different photo. (Most pages below appear courtesy of the Newseum; some have been cropped.)" (numerous front pages pictured)

.