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Monday, May 12, 2008

Look Who’s NSFW Now

posted by on May 12 at 9:34 AM

Check it out…

ohmypi.jpg

You have to click through to the full story from the front page of the PI’s website—where the image is discreetly cropped—to get to this ass shot. But those cheeks are spread clear across the top of the PI’s local section.

It’s not the word “fuck” in a headline above the fold (my completely and totally serious and only prescription for saving daily newspapers), but ass on the cover of the local section is a start. The PI will doubtless lose a few subscribers over this—outraged parents will be calling to say that they have children, blah blah blah, and that they thought the PI was a “family newspaper,” blah blah blah—but those are the kind of subscribers dailies should be anxious to rid themselves of. Newspapers are for adults, not families.

RSS icon Comments

1

you know damn well this country is more scared of some vag than some ugly guy's ass.

Posted by vooodooo84 | May 12, 2008 9:42 AM
2

Dan, if every newspaper editor jumped off a bridge ...

Posted by tsm | May 12, 2008 9:44 AM
3

Firefox > Tools > Options > Content > Load images automatically - Exceptions... > Address of web site: seattlepi.nwsource.com > Block > Close > OK.

(The blame for all victorianism at work rests entirely with sexual harassment.)

Posted by elenchos | May 12, 2008 9:45 AM
4

There is no shame.

Posted by Mr. Poe | May 12, 2008 9:45 AM
5

Context of the image matters too, you know. Is National Geographic NSFW?

Posted by Greg | May 12, 2008 9:50 AM
6

An indoor swimming pool with a rope swing is kicking rad.

Posted by wow | May 12, 2008 9:54 AM
7

I am never ever touching that rope swing again.

Posted by giantladysquirrels | May 12, 2008 9:55 AM
8

Where in the fuck is the morning news? It's almost time for my lunch.

Posted by Cat in Chicago | May 12, 2008 9:57 AM
9

"newspaperS are for adults, not families"

Posted by Editing NAZI | May 12, 2008 9:58 AM
10

Dan's last line:

"Newspapers are for adults, not families."

My kids, 12 and 9, both read the papers. Because of this they know what an idiot our president is and how wrongheaded the war in Iraq is. Schools actually encourage kids to read papers. My kids can handle the occasional butt in the paper. The far more disturbing story was the one on three women killed by abusive men. But they can even handle that.

Posted by tiptoe tommy | May 12, 2008 10:01 AM
11

How exactly is the side of some guy's but not safe for families?

Posted by Andrew | May 12, 2008 10:01 AM
12

I wouldn't object to seeing this photo in the paper, if my son saw it and questioned me I would explain what the article was about. But, I'm a little bit more open as a parent than a lot of parents I know.

I use the newspaper as a teaching tool with my son. I show him photos, read him stories in it, and share funny cartoons with him. I also use the fact that he watches me read it every day to reinforce the need to be able to read to get information. It's one of the reasons I'm sad to give up my subscription to the hard copy of the paper. I know I'll find other ways to communicate the same things, but the paper was something special we did together.

Posted by PopTart | May 12, 2008 10:03 AM
13

I hope they wash that rope.

Posted by el Rutherford | May 12, 2008 10:04 AM
14

@5 - Unfortunately for us, the prudes don't care about context, only the subject of the image.

I got into a huge debate about this question last month on Flickr as it spasmed its way through another round of "think of the children!" freak outs and the general opinion of a lot of people is that it doesn't matter whether the context is art, documentary or porn, if it shows naughty bits, we need to crack down on it. So a picture of a woman breastfeeding is just as offensive as a Playboy centerfold and don't even think about looking at that statue of David.

For some people, it's all bad.

Posted by Chris B | May 12, 2008 10:13 AM
15
Posted by internet police | May 12, 2008 10:31 AM
16

If the dailies used fuck as often as you advocate, the word would become overused and ultimately have no effect; then what would you and the word-crutching Strangeristas do? Without fuck, you couldn't put out a paper

Posted by MrFuckToYou | May 12, 2008 10:43 AM
17

He needs to work on his legs, more.

Posted by NapoleonXIV | May 12, 2008 10:47 AM
18

Down at the UO paper, we printed Fuck in an editorial headline in 100-point font (the headline was above an actual editorial about censorship. We won an award for it). It's not a front-page above the fold, but it made a point.

My only problem with this photo is the idea of being naked on a rope swing. Wouldn't that leave some nasty burns if something went wrong? Ouch.

Posted by Jo | May 12, 2008 10:48 AM
19

Adults, not families? Wrong. Our family didn't have a lot of dough, but we subscribed to the Chicago Trib and the Sun-Times when I was growing up. My grandparents got the Chicago Daily News and I can still sing the DN's jingle from their commercials. Yes, this was in the Pleistocene era, before the Internet, but I loved reading them.

NOW, this photo? Not offensive and I wouldn't try to keep it away from the kiddies. Aesthetically, the sight of his pasty flapjacks sailing through the air does nothing for me - it's been my experience that nudists always turn out to be the people you least want to see naked (check in with David Sedaris on this).

Jenna's landing strip? Eh. I feel sorry for the kid in a way; her dad's a knuckle-dragging baboon and there's little she can do about that. Free country: she has the right to coif herself as she sees fit but should know better that as a public figure by way of her dad, the paps are always lurking. Not too smart.

The guy picking his nose and chewin' it, chewin' it (tastes like candy but it's not, it's good ol' green and yellow snot - childhood song c. 1974) NOW that I want to see. Chicken shits.

Posted by Duane, Rerun and Rog | May 12, 2008 10:51 AM
20

#14 is right about it just being bad for some people i played 'too drunk to fuck' on the radio once 9:20 pm (it was an accident i swear. a cover of the dead kennedys by nouvelle vague) and boy did i hear about it from parents who were concerned about the kids. until then i thought it was a cliche this business about the kids.. but i got letters and complaints and threats to have my head on a platter. it'll never happen again.

Posted by reverend dr dj riz | May 12, 2008 10:58 AM
21

@19

You're doing it wrong.

Posted by elenchos | May 12, 2008 11:15 AM
22

the warming weather must be horning up everyone at the Stranger...every other post today is FILTHY!

i love it.

Posted by michael strangeways | May 12, 2008 12:45 PM
23

Here's some pr0n for Dominic....

Posted by NapoleonXIV | May 12, 2008 1:20 PM
24
Posted by NapoleonXIV | May 12, 2008 1:33 PM
25

Newspapers are for the literate! If you want your kid to grow up able to read and think, best you have such things in the house.

And yes, National Geographic nudity is NSFW.

Some of you folks must have some very mellow workplaces. Have you any idea how sexual harassment rules get applied in Red State Jebusland? We're not dealing with an "objective man standard", I don't believe. Was it offensive to YOU, our system asks the complainer.

America is truly afraid of.... the bube.

Not our own violence, or the ignorance we combine with it on a global level. Nope. Just... the bube.

I work in a workplace in Red State Jebusland where an employee club posted flyers encouraing people to come with them to a dinner theater production of "Right Bed, Wrong Husband." Based on nothing more than the title of that play, two of our biggest godbotherers went straight to the jefe of the entire damned building to beat their chests about the anti-Christian-values bigotry.

Of course, just text discussions of sex and homersexhulality and liberal (and actual left) politics are enough for me to not even dream of peeking at SLOG at work. Just on political grounds, it's NSFW for me!

Argh.. I'd move to Seattle, but I hear that meek boys like me don't get laid there, either. We do get to inherit the earth, though, which includes that cool Sleeper house in Colorado...

Posted by CP | May 12, 2008 4:44 PM
26

"Newspapers are for adults, not families."

WTF? Are you kidding? I've been reading the paper every day since I was nine. I'm now in my '30s.

Newspapers are for people of all ages. Of course, some stories I wouldn't want to read in front of my family, but still.

Posted by me | May 12, 2008 10:49 PM
27

I've been reading the paper since I was 5 and my mother would have to stop me from reading Ann Landers out loud because the topics were a bit more than she wanted to discuss with me. Papers are for literate families.

Posted by Sha | May 13, 2008 7:47 AM

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