The Chronicle makes Best of the Web (again)

Image credit: Pixabay

Today’s Best of the Web references the front page picture from Wednesday’s Chronicle, which also ran on the front of the N.Y. Post. (Here’s a N.Y. Post link to the same picture the Chronicle ran.)

The other day, the front pages of both the New York Post and the Houston Chronicle featured a photograph of a U.S. Marine in Fallujah, who happened to have a cigarette dangling from his mouth. This brought out the health police in both cities. Here are a pair of letters that appeared in the Chronicle:

I was shocked to see the large photograph on Nov. 10. A tired, dirty and brave Marine rests after a battle–but with a cigarette dangling from his mouth! Lots of children, particularly boys, play “army” and like to imitate this young man. The clear message of the photo is that the way to relax after a battle is with a cigarette.

The truth is very different from that message. Most of our troops don’t smoke. And most importantly, this young man is far more likely to die a horrible death from his tobacco addiction than from his tour of duty in Iraq.

DR. DANIEL MALONEY
The Woodlands

I opened the Chronicle this morning and got slapped in the face by a huge picture of a “battle weary” Marine with a fine looking cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

I respect everyone’s rights, but do we really need to encourage our young people to think that this is part of required military gear?

MAYNARD HOVLAND
League City

And in the Post:

How much did Phillip Morris pay for the front cover advertisement? Thank you for continuing to encourage the development of cancer.

Mark Leininger
Manhattan

The Post’s cover was horrible and crude. How could you compare our soldiers to the Marlboro Man? We are not “kicking butt” in Iraq. We are in an unjustified war with a people who will never allow democracy to come to their country.

Janna Passuntino
Manhattan

I was shocked to see the front page of your newspaper. Showing a GI smoking and portraying it as being cool is disgusting, to say the least.

First of all, you are promoting smoking, even though it is a health hazard. Secondly, our brave men and women are fighting a tough war in Iraq, and to show them as you did does not do them justice.

Maybe showing a Marine in a tank, helping another GI or drinking water would have had a more positive impact on your readers. Smoking should be outlawed, not endorsed.

Ali Mahdi
North Brunswick, N.J.

Post reader Hank Sbordone of Middletown, N.J., however, has a different view: “Thank God New York isn’t occupied by terrorists. Mayor Bloomberg wouldn’t allow a Marine who smokes to enter the city. He would probably rather be a prisoner than see someone smoke.”

That might be true for Houston, too, if councilwoman Sekula-Gibbs has her way.

UPDATE: Here’s an L.A. Times story on the Marine in that picture.

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Anne Linehan is a co-founder of blogHOUSTON.