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Dave Obee: Front-page photo should be a grabber

John Daly is one of the most colourful pro golfers in the world. He is hard to miss, given his paunch, his loud demeanour, his even louder choices in clothing, his penchant for smoking and his amazing long-distance drives.
Photo - front page Sept. 13, 2017

VKA-obee-520501.jpgJohn Daly is one of the most colourful pro golfers in the world. He is hard to miss, given his paunch, his loud demeanour, his even louder choices in clothing, his penchant for smoking and his amazing long-distance drives.

Daly makes Rodney Dangerfield’s character in the movie Caddyshack seem trivial by comparison.

Daly is a crowd-pleaser at tournaments wherever he goes, but that does not mean that all fans love him.

Some cringe at the sight of him — and, it turns out, they don’t want this newspaper to put a photo of him on our front page.

Many top golfers, including Daly, are in Victoria this week for the Pacific Links Bear Mountain Championship. On Tuesday, one of our photographers went to Bear Mountain to get shots of some of the golfers practising and learning the course.

As we choose photos for front page, many factors come into play. First of all, the photo needs to be eye-catching. A photo that will not grab the attention of the reader does not belong on front page. A front-page photo should leap out and pull the reader in.

At the newsstand, it’s usually the photo, not the headline, that entices someone to pick up a publication. The front-page photo is of prime importance.

The selection is always fraught with danger, because no photo will please all readers, and some will read deeper meaning into the choice. (“A photo of Carole James? You guys are promoting the NDP.”)

The photo we used on Wednesday’s front was colourful and eye-catching. It showed an overweight Daly, puffing on a cigarette, practising his putts at Bear Mountain.

The reaction was swift. As one caller put it, the photo was “disgusting, offensive and an insult to your readers.”

Others said that we should have used photos of Bernhard Langer or Sir Nick Faldo instead. One email said: “The shot of an obviously overweight Daly puffing on a cigarette while practising his putting is the antithesis of any athlete deserving of such coverage.”

Daly’s obesity was mentioned by several of those who protested the photo, as was his cigarette.

Three people — including a member of the Professional Golfers’ Association of Canada — also expressed disgust and disappointment because Daly was not projecting the image that they want young golfers to see.

Another person said the photo of Daly should not have been beside the story on the death of a well-known educator in a motorcycle crash.

There were other comments, but you get the idea.

There is no doubt that the photo captured the attention of readers — but were we wrong to use it? Bear in mind that only those upset would let us know; we rarely hear from people who are happy with the choices we make. The critical emails and phone calls do not represent a fair sampling of opinion.

Should we stop publishing photos of overweight people? Absolutely not.

What about people smoking? Should we avoid using photos of Wayne Gretzky when he has a cigar in his mouth or his hand?

Should we only publish photos approved by the golfers’ association, or any other professional organization? What about politicians — MLAs or American presidents?

I think that we should not publish photos taken in a moment where people look their worst. Sometimes a camera will catch a look in an eye, or a tongue hanging out, or whatever. It is not fair to use photos like that.

But the photo of Daly was not taken in the blink of an eye. The aspects drawing complaints were present in all of the photos we took. The elements that bothered some readers were the very ones that make Daly so popular, so different than all the others on tour.

I don’t believe that bland is the way to go. I don’t believe we should filter images to avoid offending anyone. There are only so many scenic shots of water in the foreground, Mount Baker in the background that we could publish before our front page became invisible.

Daly was brought to Victoria because he will help bring crowds to the tournament. The crowd loves him, and yes, I understand that the crowd does not include everyone.

We debated whether to use the photo, and in the end, I said yes. Love it or hate it, it was the most memorable photo of the day.

dobee@timescolonist.com

Dave Obee is editor in chief of the Times Colonist.