About that nude photo shoot by Evan Lysacek
Being an eagle-eyed editor and all, I just knew something big was going on when virtually the entire staff was gathered around an editor's computer screen a few months ago.
It involved Naperville favorite son Evan Lysacek.
No, not anything to do with his winning an Olympic gold medal in figure skating. No, not his runner-up finish in “Dancing With The Stars.” Nor had we learned that the city of Naperville was planning to hold an Evan Lysacek Day II.
The commotion was over Evan posing nude in the October edition of ESPN The Magazine.
I had two immediate thoughts:
1. “We should do a story about this.”
2. “We'll never run that photo.”
No. 2 troubled me so much that I pretty much gave up on No. 1. I mean, how do you build a story around a photo you can't publish because you know it's going to offend a significant number of your readers?
(And just to get this out of the way, there are numerous online sites that display the nude photos of Evan and other athletes. One helpfully rates the poses “from most to least puke-inducing.” A quick Google search will show you everything you need to know. Get it over with and please come back to this column.)
I pretty much forgot about The Pose until it became time of year for all those End of the Year stories. These are the annual recaps — famous deaths, stories/faces/photos of the year— our readers love and we'd do anyway because there isn't much news going on and everyone's using up their end-of-the-year vacation time.
At last, I thought, we can put Evan's nude photo in the context of all the amazing things that have happened in 2010 to the 25-year-old we first wrote about when he was 11. So, I cast a discerning eye into the newsroom, looking for the perfect reporter to chronicle Evan's big year. Obviously, I settled on the guy who covers the DuPage County court system: Josh Stockinger. He had no immediate vacation plans I was aware of.
There was still the matter of the photo. I felt that it had to run in some fashion, but in the overall context of everything good that happened to Evan, the nude photo didn't have to be the only artwork to run with Josh's story.
So, I asked Editor John Lampinen for a ruling. He, in turn, asked several editors here what they thought. The first response came in quickly:
“Well, I'm hardly a prude, but that's a pretty big jump for us,” one editor replied.
The writing was on the wall.
So, Lampinen decreed we run a page shot of ESPN The Magazine with Evan's picture, but a photo from “Dancing With The Stars” strategically covering up Evan's nude shot, showing him from the waist up.
I think the boss' reasoning says a lot about who we are and the decisions we make.
“The nude is, I'm sure everyone will acknowledge, tastefully and artistically done. However, you could say the same thing about many of the nudes in Playboy; we wouldn't put them on Page 1 of the paper, even if the model hailed from Herald City,” Lampinen said.
“There occasionally are times when there is cause to publish something knowing it will enrage the sensibilities of a good portion of our audience. Overarching subjects that affect the public welfare, like wars, equality and the health of the republic. A picture of a naked figure skater does not fall into that category.”
I am pleased — and relieved — to note that the game plan was executed flawlessly on the front page of Monday, Dec. 27.
• jdavis@dailyherald.com