Click Here to view the article referred to in this editorial.
The Renegade Rip has received many questions and comments regarding the front page of our Thursday, Sept. 10 issue, which featured two pictures of contestants from the pole dancing competition held at The Dome on Aug. 28. We’ve received so many that we feel it necessary to use this issue’s Staff Editorial to address the controversy. In addition to angry calls, our journalistic integrity has been questioned with comments likening our coverage of the event to pornography. We are by no means apologizing, and we absolutely stand by our decision, but we hope to let those concerned understand our reasoning.
It’s hard to understand why we as an editorial board do the things we do without briefly going into the newspaper production process. Before physically laying out our pages on the computer, we must decide what goes where. We look at all the photographs we have for the issue and decide which are the most interesting and most colorful. With few color pages, we want to make sure our truly great photos get the display they deserve.
As journalists, we report things of interest to Bakersfield, specifically to Bakersfield College students. The pole dancing competition was a new and different event for Bakersfield, and surely BC students attended the event and wanted to know more. Although the event was a bit racier than what we generally cover, the interest in the event was obvious and thus undoubtedly newsworthy. The competition also provided great photographs, which showcased what our photographers are capable of. The color, composition and unique content made these photographs worthy of our front page. The photos capture these women pushing the physical limits of their bodies and we, at least, thought these elements made for art worthy of our front page.
The editorial board never thought twice about putting these pictures on the front page. For us, there was no question; we all agreed that they deserved to be on the front. The pole dancing pictures were not put there for shock value. We consider ourselves legitimate journalists and above yellow journalism. Certainly the pictures brought more readers, and, yes, the eye-catching aspect helped in our decision, but we are not going the route of grocery store tabloids, begging for paying readers to pick up our latest issue. In fact, The Renegade Rip is free of charge, so it doesn’t matter how many more people picked up our latest issue, it’s not like we get paid for it. (And speaking of monetary concerns, many callers and commenters complained about their tax dollars paying for our newspaper. Your tax dollars may go toward the school, but the school subsidizes very little of our publishing, leaving us to fundraise through advertising the majority of our printing costs).
The Renegade Rip editorial board is not a bunch of smut-peddlers. Many of us have strong religious upbringings, but we decided to publish the pictures because of the journalistic value. If we were truly trying to get risqué photographs into the hands of our readers, we would have published raunchier and more suggestive pictures, which the competition definitely provided our photographers with. The photos we chose show about what one can expect to see at a trip to the beach. The women are covered, however scantily, and we’d like to remind readers that “nudity” means zero clothing, completely naked. So, yes, “two miniscule pieces of cloth” does constitute as clothing, at least in the literal sense.
The pole dancing pictures have lead to debate even in our own classroom. Although the editorial board was united in their decision, many of our reporters had the same issues with the pictures and their placement that so many of our readers have. Pole dancing is a touchy subject but a newsworthy one just the same.
Although it was never a question for us, we understand why our choices have lead to some controversy. We hope that in reading this, we will be understood too.