Deerly Departed

Few things anger readers like the sight of a dead animal — especially if happens to be a cute animal.

Last week, we ran a story about Outdoors Without Limits, a recreational outreach program “committed to help reduce the barriers that prevent disabled people from enjoying the great outdoors.” The founder’s daughter wants to start a chapter in Chesterfield County.
Since the program involves hunting, I decided to run a photo founder Kirk Thomas and his daughter, Heather, which followed this theme. Naturally, the photo included a dead deer. I knew that complaints would follow.


Surprisingly, we didn’t get many. A woman stopped me after last week’s Pageland Town Council meeting to warn me that her daughter would cancel her subscription if we ran another photo of a dead deer.
The funny thing is: I get it. I have no interest in hunting (which surprises a great many people when they learn I’m into archery) and couldn’t care less about supporting the habit. As Ted Nugent might say, I was brainwashed at an early age by Disney’s Bambi.
That being said, I don’t see this newspaper as The Wallace McBride Show. While I’m the gatekeeper for what will and won’t run in this paper, whether of not it’s of interest to me is mostly irrelevant. If it’s something our readers will like — even a small number of them — then I’ll use it.
I don’t think we’re selling too many newspapers to readers who want only School of Rock, only school or government news, or only advertisements. There are as many reasons to buy newspapers as there are people, so variety is of key importance. That’s the beauty of the model.
It wasn’t my intention to offend people who loved animals last week, nor is it my intention to offend hunters. We’ve all got a place in this community, so accordingly we all have a place in this newspaper.
Bottom line: I don’t much like hunting, but will gladly run photos and stories when they are relevant. That doesn’t include submissions of random kills — unless you shot a deer that was shooting back. Now that would make the front page.

Feel free to share your thoughts on the subject below. I’d be interested in reading them, as would a great many other people.