How did fans’ ‘fingers’ show up in the paper?

A photo of Kyle Busch celebrating his victory at Bristol Motor Speedway appeared in Monday's Sports section. Unlike most NASCAR celebration photos, this one was not taken in Victory Lane. It was taken on the track as Busch faced the crowd and raised his arms in triumph.

He saluted the crowd. The crowd saluted him.

The problem? The crowd's salute wasn't standard fare for a family newspaper. It contained one finger, or half of the peace sign.

Richmond Times-Dispatch readers responded to the photo with 14 e-mails and eight phone calls. Most of the calls were informative, readers asking if we knew the content of the photo. One laughed and thanked us for brightening his morning. Nobody seemed extremely upset.

In e-mail, some comments expressed outrage. One reader called it appalling. Two readers expressed concern that children would see the photo and think it's OK to copy the crowd because they saw it in the newspaper.

Some readers asked if we thought we were being cute by printing the photo. Others thought it was deliberate.

It was neither an attempt at cuteness nor a deliberate choice.

There are many issues surrounding the photo.

Why did the photographer take the photo?

In a live event situation, photographers take pictures and ask questions later. It's their job to capture the action, but understanding what they've photographed comes with the territory, said James Wallace,

Times-Dispatch director of photography.

In this case, the photographer, who works for our sister paper in Bristol, saw Kyle Busch standing on his car, celebrating his victory with the crowd. He took the photo.

Media General photographers are frequently asked to move their photos onto our shared wire service as soon as possible to give newspapers with early deadlines the opportunity to choose photos to run with their stories.

"We have all heard that two heads are better than one, and the same holds true for two sets of eyes in the editing process," Wallace said.

Unfortunately that didn't happen before the photos were transmitted from the track in Bristol. The photographer didn't notice the unusual content of the photo until after it moved on the wire. When it finally was noticed, there was still no alert issued about the graphic content, even though there is a company policy requiring that kind of notification.

"When our photographers transmit from the Richmond track, the images never get sent before being reviewed by at least two editors," Wallace said.

How did the photo end up in the paper?

Page designers select sports photos at

The Times-Dispatch. The designer found a photo on the wire service that represented a different vantage point. Champagne wasn't flowing, the champ wasn't hugging his trophy, and confetti didn't litter the sky.

When designers initially look at photos on their computers, they see much smaller, thumbnail versions. The resolution isn't as good, which means details aren't sharp, and the background action isn't quite as noticeable. The designer chose the photo and placed it on the page, neglecting to look at a higher-resolution version.

After finishing the page, the designer sends it to a printer, which spits out a smaller, black-and-white version of the page on an 11-by-17-inch piece of paper. The proof contains all of the stories, headlines, photos, and captions as they will appear in the newspaper. With black-and-white photos, there is little contrast, making it difficult to pick up small details on the page. The person checking the proof read the headlines, stories, and captions and looked at the overall page. Nothing seemed abnormal about the photo.

None of this is an excuse for what happened, but it explains how it can happen.

What are we doing to prevent it from happening again?

Media General's policy is that if a story or photo moves on the wire and there is objectionable content, the originating paper must send out a caution to all editors. That has been reiterated.

We have taken steps to change our process of selecting photos and proofing pages to help keep a photo that may have questionable content from getting into the paper. Designers will pay closer attention to all of the action in the photo. They will view it at a higher resolution to check for inappropriate content. The person proofing pages will examine photos more closely and ask to see a full-size proof of the photo itself to review the content.

The Kyle Busch photo was a true depiction of what happens at NASCAR races. Race fans commonly express their opinions, some in ways that other people find offensive. Busch is not exactly the golden boy of NASCAR -- in fact, he thrives on being the bad guy. Had we been aware of the content, we would have had a conversation in the newsroom with editors to determine if the photo was suitable to publish. If so, we would have explained the decision in the caption.

The

Times-Dispatch is not the first newspaper to run a photo that offended some readers. But we need to be aware of the content and its implications before publishing such an image.

There are times when it is appropriate to publish such a photo. On Feb. 6, 1978, The Times-Dispatch published a photo of an unidentified linesman expressing his dismay with Vitas Gerulaitis in the same fashion during the United Virginia Bank Tennis Classic at the Richmond Coliseum. The big difference is that editors knew what was in the picture and explained it to readers. The action of the linesman was news.

The Times-Dispatch did not mean to offend any readers and apologizes to those who were offended.

Any photo that appears in the paper should receive complete thought and scrutiny. We're sorry this one didn't.

Contact Sports Editor Steve Trosky at (804) 649-6456or .