by Carolyn Chase
ll of us involved with local vol- unteer efforts
for Earth Day and the EarthFair in Balboa Park had an extraordinary time
this year. Everyone agreed that the crowds were bigger than ever. For the
first time, San Diego Earth Day, the small non-profit organization which
produces the event, managed to retrieve and return every last one of the
hundreds of tables, chairs, barricades and cones loaned to the event. There
were no ambulance transports and no police incidents. Twenty tired team
leaders made it to dinner by 8:30 that night. "Samurai" volunteers
were unloading and returning equipment at 7:30am the next morning. All of
us involved thought, "job well done."
Little did we know that another process was
also going on: a hunting process at the offices of the San Diego Union
Tribune. Earth Day is a big, slow-moving target, so it was really child's
play to land some shots - and they did.
While an estimated 75,000 people came to the
park to visit almost 250 exhibits, see a Children's Parade and the efforts
of 300 community-service volunteers, the lead the SD-UT printed was,
"EarthFair draws nudists, psychics - and ecologists."
Much worse was the selection, size and placement
of the photo of one sarcastic t-shirt (out of thousands at the event, and
available at other retail locations) saying "I Kill Hunters for Fun
and Sport." The SD-UT knows that event organizers have little
control over statements such as this nor can we stop publishers from printing
such a message. But our question is, why choose this message? Out of 75,000
stories at the EarthFair, why choose this one? What exactly is the SD-UT
trying to promote? What are they trying to attack?
Of the thousands of people walking past that
booth, some were probably offended and most simply ignored it. But it was
the SD-UT publication of the image that was seen by many hundreds
of thousands. The following day's coverage in the sports/outdoor section
was then utterly predictable, with the inaccurate headline "Earth Day
t-shirt tees off hunters." It was not the t-shirt that teed off the
hunters as much as it was the picture of the t-shirt the paper!
After receiving letters and phone calls, the
SD-UT published five letters to the editor, including excerpts from
mine under the headline, "EarthFair coverage missed the point."
Good placement, thank you. I appreciate their printing of reader's letters
stating the flaws of their EarthFair report.
But there has not been any statement from the
editors about the photo choice or the practice of telling reporters to seek
out the "weird and extreme." They hunted down that story, ran
it, and then allowed Ed Zieralski to cover the publishing of that photo
as "news" the following day, stating that the people selling that
t-shirt at the EarthFair "did advocate murder." SD-UT
reader's representative Gina Lubrano denied that they ran the picture to
set up the coverage. She did not address the selection of that particular
coverage.
Unlike the t-shirt sold by and to "animal
advocates" who have a hard time killing anything the "outdoors"
column is presumably read by people with guns. What's the bigger threat:
selling a few stupid t-shirts to pacifists or selling hunters paranoia about
environmentalists advocating murder? This is strong stuff. We deserve a
better response.
Photo editor Robert York stated to EarthFair
organizer Kari Gray that they had no obligation to report on the EarthFair
accurately; their job was to get their story. Their predetermined story
line was that Earth Day was getting more extreme. Their approach was not
a sincere attempt to cover a community event. They knew in advance the story
would yield the politically incorrect, and they could hold it up as what
the entire event was about.
York further defended the photo in Lubrano's
column stating, "The photo, taken in context with the story, reflects
the changes taking place in Earth Day celebrations." This justification
is nonsense. Bad t-shirts and nudists have been at the EarthFair for years.
A portion of my letter that was not
printed called on the editors to apologize. At this point, I presume that
they are not big enough to do so. Lubrano stated over the phone that she
felt the coverage was "balanced," and further defended it in print
stating, "I think the story reflected what took place April 20 when
thousands of people, "converged on Balboa Park to rub shoulders with
ecologists, psychic healers, nudist campers and people dressed as space
aliens."
This is called adding insult to injury. Her
claim that the coverage was "balanced" demonstrates that she is
just kidding herself. It's called denial and is a common reaction when a
person or the institution they are representing has done a shameful thing.
A simple apology would have saved a lot of column inches.
I asked her, "How would you know what
was balanced when you weren't even there?" This is the problem: anyone
who wasn't there would probably assume that the coverage was balanced. It
wasn't. If you saw that coverage, would you think "gee, that was fun,
I want to take my kids to EarthFair to find out how to make a difference?"
Or would you think it was just a bunch of freaks?
Exhibitors and guests at the EarthFair should
and do exercise their freedom to look the way they want, exercise their
good and bad taste, and try different things to make a better world. This
freedom is also a part of the EarthFair it's called diversity.
Powerful institutions like the SD-UT
should be called to account when they hold their chosen targets up to ridicule
in such a shameful and potentially dangerous fashion. The bottom line is
a lack of respect for the diversity, message and community production of
the EarthFair, San Diego Earth Day, its volunteers, sponsors and exhibitors.
In addition, it is the willful and irresponsible exercise of power and arrogance
in justifying their actions after the fact. What we really need is for the
SD-UT to apologize to organizers, environmentalists and hunters alike.
A lot of folks can't speak out against the
SD-UT and I probably can't afford to either. But at some point, you
have to demand accountability and hope that they will look upon you with
some compassion. Since it seems the SD-UT folks don't have it in
them at this point, I think that letters should best be directed to their
boss: Publisher David Copley, Copley Press, 7776 Ivanhoe Ave, La Jolla CA
92037.
If you would like to send your thoughts about
this to the SD-UT: San Diego Union-Tribune, P.O. Box 191, San Diego, CA 92112-4106; FAX: 293-1440, email: readers.rep
uniontrib.com, lettersuniontrib.com
And finally, on a lighter note, I would like
to remind everyone that at least at the EarthFair the people all beam in,
not out!
