Editors at the Peterborough Examiner overlooked one minor detail in a staff photo before it was published today.
A high school student's very visible penis on a hot tub float during a Santa Claus parade.
"They've pulled all issues from the newsstand, but will surely be hearing from the kid's family," says a TSF tipster. "Not enough staff on the desk up there?"
Another tipster writes:
"Another result of the hacking and slashing by PKP in newsrooms . . . The photog had no idea and the reduced number of editors working the weekend unfortunately missed it."
The same photo was picked up by Canadian Press and used by Metro, with the name of the student in the cutline.
http://www.blogto.com/upload/2009/12/20091207_metroholidaysplashED.jpg
A high school student's very visible penis on a hot tub float during a Santa Claus parade.
"They've pulled all issues from the newsstand, but will surely be hearing from the kid's family," says a TSF tipster. "Not enough staff on the desk up there?"
Another tipster writes:
"Another result of the hacking and slashing by PKP in newsrooms . . . The photog had no idea and the reduced number of editors working the weekend unfortunately missed it."
The same photo was picked up by Canadian Press and used by Metro, with the name of the student in the cutline.
http://www.blogto.com/upload/2009/12/20091207_metroholidaysplashED.jpg
Penisgate?
Or, as Torontoist headlines it: Peterborough Peter.
http://torontoist.com/2009/12/hangin_out_at_st_peters.php
"Today's Metro contains something of a cock-up," says one of those very clever Torontoist staffers.
The Peterborough Peter
ReplyDeleteAnother blog:
http://torontoist.com/2009/12/hangin_out_at_st_peters.php
Reminds of the Sun's big OOPS years ago that everyone missed, The Bike Courier spread with his thingy poking out. And, those were the days of film processing and printing photo's.
ReplyDeleteMore - or perhaps more experienced - editors would have caught that.
ReplyDeleteEditors don't work weekends at the Examiner. Monday papers are edited and laid out by two reporters working Sunday night.
ReplyDeleteThe Peterborough Examiner is notorious for their little "oopsies" to all of us locals but this definitely takes the cake! I laughed all day long thanks to this young man's intelligent move to wear boxers in a hot tub, then rapidly spring upwards.. Ahh yes, we are a very bright community here in the 'Borough.. Come visit us - You'll always leave with a great story to tell everyone back home.
ReplyDelete... or not. Still, it's probably the most interesting article out of Peterborough in some time. Maybe they should try that in other markets and sell some newspapers...
ReplyDeleteGeez. It's Sunday night, I'm bored and they just care about getting the pages filled. I wonder if anyone would notice if I make this photo twice as large as the other eight. And how about putting the photo of an Examiner manager right underneath the penis holding a sign, " North Pole, Naughty ". Wow, I couldn't ask for better material.
ReplyDeleteAmazing!! Not that anyone will appreciate my humour...but I should be on The Daily Show.
Peter...borough.....I can hear Jon Stewart now!!!
If only the penis was of age.
The picture was very funny, but whose idea was it to have a hot tub on a Catholic high school Christmas float? There is your oopsie! I recall a local Peterborough Catholic teacher who was recently shunned publicly for wearing a questionable outfit while playing a Halloween gig with his band on his own private time. I can just imagine how the Catholic school board feels about this one.
ReplyDeleteInexperience is not to blame... an oversight on three people at The Examiner (veteran, award-winning photographer, a 30-year reporter/editor and a 10-year reporter/part-time editor).
ReplyDeleteLet's also add in editor(s) at The Canadian Press and editor(s) at Metro.
Obviously it wasn't that apparent as I've asked some friends who have the original page (it was on a photospread) and quickly looking at the page they didn't notice it either.
"More experienced" editors didn't make a difference in this case. Overworked local staff rushing through copy, etc. perhaps.
It's on MTV:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPWzLTmR_Tw
What an interesting turn of events. Questions to be asked.
ReplyDeleteHow did Ryan "Johnston" not know his package was hanging out? And for that matter only semi-flacid? Has everyone involved been questioned regarding this event. How did all the editors miss this. Why is the Catholic school board/trustees looking for heads to roll (do they really think Cliff would do this to sell more newspapers/as a joke/or to get a photograph noticed). Would an award winning photographer take a chance on loosing his job over this? After all it was awful easy to crop or photo shop the photo. However, I am sure he was pissed when his camera lense got wet during the photo shoot. Would editors at 3 major newspapers take a chance on this and publish anyway..not even maybe.
Maybe I'm ignorant but I'd say there's enough visual noise in that part of the picture that a little P.R. might have convinced the general public that it was "just a trick of the light" and that they all just have dirty minds THINKING that's a penis. Certainly the penis-iness of the penis didn't jump out at ME when I saw the picture. A friend sent me the picture without comment, under the title, "what's wrong with this picture," and even I, KNOWN for my dirty-mindedness, didn't see "it" until friend followed up with a pointer to THIS page. People just need to CHILL. Sheesh.
ReplyDeleteI know for a fact Cliff was (and still is) upset over this happening.
ReplyDeleteHe takes great pride in his work which regularly appears in newspapers across North America.
For anyone to suggest he did this intentionally is a slap in the face to him and his reputation as a professional. Mistakes happen, we're only human.
@1:43
ReplyDeleteWhoa, hold on there, fella, let's not get off message. Quebecor cuts are to blame; don't be bringing in the staff at two other companies who missed the dong. We don't like those facts here.
The Peterborough Examiner has a disgraceful record for typos, not just in the copy, but frequently in major headlines too. It's a constant source of amusement for my family, but as a writer/journalist it's also a sad reflection on declining journalistic standards and staffing levels. Yes, there's information everywhere today, but how much of it is accurate?
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't understand is why in heaven they decided to publish the picture of a guy and some girls on a hot tub, if they were talking about the Santa Claus parade?
ReplyDeleteI know this was one of the floats... but couldn't they have chosen something more thematic like Santa, and elf, a reindeer, a snowman, gingerbread men, or anything else... rather than this dude and his candy cane????
Cliff's an obsessively professional and gifted photographer.
ReplyDeleteThe only dick in this picture is PKP's management style, and it's a limp and ineffective one.
The Torontoist has added a disclaimer:
ReplyDelete"UPDATE, DECEMBER 9, 2009: According to the Catholic school board which represents St. Peter's, the photo depicts a current seventeen-year-old student of the school. While the image as it appeared in Metro does not constitute "child pornography"—those depicted are not "engaged in explicit sexual activity" nor was the image's "dominant characteristic...the depiction, for a sexual purpose, of a sexual organ"—we've nonetheless pixellated the point of contention in the photo above."
Guess, there's been a few calls.
i saw it.. hell.. i don't think that kid's got anything at all to be embarrassed about!! he's prolly got dates lined up for the next 3 years.. that's flacid?? whew.. yeah.. he's not all the worse off for hanging it out in public (accidental or not)
ReplyDeleteit certainly has made a BIG splash!! and i do mean big
ReplyDeleteIn reference to asking why the guy didn't know he was hanging out....maybe he did and realised it after but how is he to know that in that HUGE crowd that was there that evening at that very moment someone was taking his picture.
ReplyDeleteIt was only a mistake. No one is to blame for it. It's a penis oops....get over it
I feel for Ryan, he is now all over the net, and in different papers, it looks in the paper like they just stood up as the pic was being takin, but the editors should have seen it, or reporters we pay alot of money for a paper that seems to have a lot of CORRECTIONS !
ReplyDeleteI so agree with the comments about the poor standards for editing in the Examiner - I often wonder if anyone ever reads what they have written before it is put in type as it is certain no one checks afterward - the grammer and spelling is astonishingly poor!! So many typos!! So maybe no one checked this picture either.... as for the photographer - don't you check EVERY picture you take and publish??
ReplyDeletehaha I think people should stop putting down the quality of the examiner...it's Peterborough, honestly, what do you expect? And it's normal for us to make mistakes...It's only a penis, you can find a lot more online, this is just a paper in the picture, not porn, don't flip out about it. big whoop, a dick, all guys have one.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Peterborough Examiner slip up has to be a few years back when they mis spelt an ad for a "Shirt Sale" by leaving the "R" out of shirt. Wish I had of saved it!
ReplyDelete