Daily News Does It Again
 

I wrote them the year Landseer broke down and they showed a blowup so graphic I almost got sick. They published my letter to the editor editing out the part about being a tabloid paper. Well here we go again, read the caption and remember this picture is a lot bigger in the regular paper. Why?

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/st...p-394240c.html

i wrote them a brief comment, probably do as much good as your letter after landseer.

I wrote another letter to the editor about it just now.

Danzig, the Landseer one was so bad, I couldn't imagine they'd do it again. Remember, this picture is showing her leg out of the skin here, in a blowup version in a color photo.

And on the cover of NY Newsday today they have a picture of 2 mangled cars where 3 people died.Headlines sell papers Randall and they're in the business of making money.That's why they do it.

That's a pretty cynical acceptance of this. See the difference is, the car crash "is" the story. A breakdown on BC is "a" story which absolutely needs to be told. But it doesn't need to be shown with a leg that badly damaged breaking the skin.

i know...against my better judgement i clicked on the link and saw it. i knew they sugarcoated it yesterday when they said it was 'dislocated'. eight races, over a hundred horses ran...that not counting the undercard, and this is the one story they focus on.

While I find their actions shameful and tasteless, I support their first amendment right to do so.

well that goes without saying, just like writing to them is me exercising my rights!

I just sent this...It means nothing in the grand scheme of things, but it made me feel better.

It is always a tragedy when a horse breaks down in a race. It is usually gruesome. It is heartbreaking for the owner trainer breeder groom and rider. That tragedy should NOT be compounded by insensitive and macabre photographs printed and distributed soley for their shock value.
The photograph in sunday's edition of your paper that shows the final struggle of a beautiful and courageous animal is beyond bad taste.
Pine Island gave all that she had on the track and suffered the worst possible fate, why would anyone want to subject her memory to furthur indignity? Her connections are some of the oldest and finest in the sport, they should not be repayed for their efforts by some tabloid news-type headline. Shame on you.
Sincerely,
Bethani White

excellent letter!!

The horse is a NY horse owned by Big NY owners trained by a Big time NY trainer who ran her best races in NY and is based in NY. How can they not give it a lot of press. Not to mention the fact that the trainer who won the damn race was the trainer of the most famous broke down horse in recent memory? I hate the picture but it is a big story and they are in business to sell papers.
One of the pitfalls of the exposure that the industry craves is negative images that sometimes occur. We have to understand that the bigger the industry gets in the publics eyes, especially with the backing of ESPN, the more the focus will fall on the negative. It is not a horseracing problem, it is a society problem.

Randall,
I totally agree with you. That rag is shameless. It has been for many years.
They've published pictures of people jumping from buildings, mafia hits with dead human bodies, air crashes...on and on.
Shamless!
I'll never buy their paper. Their only "jounalism" is reliance on "shock".
Hopefully, this rag will go out of business soon. All we need do is stop buying their product.
They are certainly not doing anything to help build fan base for horse racing.
Boycott the Daily "News".
Toilet paper is cheaper and achieves the same results.
DTS

I take no issue with the written article what so ever...the photo is just another story. A symptom of a very sad and sick society that hungers to see this sort of gruesomness up close and in color. I understand it, but I don't have to like it.

I hate it too.

100% in agreement.The unfortunate thing is that society is that way now.I remember years ago they came out with this video "Faces of Death' which i'm glad to say i never viewed.It showed the killing of a monkey by bashing it's head which i was told,and other gruesome things i'm sure.Video stores couldn't keep it on there shelves to the point that the company that produced it came out with more of them.When the video on Al-Jazzeera came out with the first beheading i was told that people waited for hours to dowload it and view it.We have become so insensitive as a society

Mark,
Your last sentence says it all.
Just hold hope that those of us that remain "sensitive" are not viewed as "outside" of that society, but continue to bring awareness of the outrageousness of that "mentality", whether it be a beautiful race horse, or a "collaterally" (innocently killed child in Iraq, or a starving one in Darfur.
Blood thirst and "rubber necking" at car crashes on the side of the highway brings curiosity at the horror that others endure. Thank goodness it wasn't me mentality. It sells.
As a "society", the Romans remain our model. Applaud the gore of the gladiators as they murder each other running around the ring spewing blood.
Sad that we've come to that. Very sad.
DTS

I'm a fan of the Daily News, but have to agree that printing that picture was in bad taste. Very bad taste.

I believe that the big story yesterday was that breakdown. And it symbolizes all the breakdowns on dirt. I have no problem with that picture. Unfortunately it did happen and will continue to happen on the dirt.