I understand the importance of covering a story in its entirety from beginning to end, but zooming a Tribune camera lens into the coffin of 11-year-old Robert Sandifer and placing that photo on the front page Sept. 7 was a totally unnecessary and morbid act.
Crime has penetrated every aspect of our lives, and like all Chicagoans I feel that it must be stopped, but I saw no inherent value in your decision to print that photo (let alone to print it in color). Your definition of photojournalism offered no solution to the problem, it simply exploited it.
As citizens of the United States, we still have certain rights. We have the right to decide, for example, if we want to view the body of a deceased loved one when attending a funeral. Some of us opt not to do so. How dare the Tribune make this decision for us and ask us to digest it along with our morning coffee.
