In today’s Chronicle, reader representative James Campbell followed up on an earlier blog post about the STAR section’s recent decision to reprint a New York Times feature on fiftysomething year-old porn stars. The decision upset some readers who didn’t think the spread (pardon the pun) belonged in a family newspaper and asked “Where were the editors?”
The newspaper’s features editor responded as follows:
Kyrie O’Connor, deputy managing editor/features, responded: “We didn’t choose the 50-plus porn star story deliberately to annoy people. We chose it because it was one of the most interesting stories we’d seen in a long time, well-written, lively, unusual. It’s true that it may not be the first story you would want your 8-year-old to read that day, but while we need to be respectful of our readers, we don’t need to plan the newspaper for 8-year-olds. Any child who could read that story should have his or her questions answered about it by a thoughtful adult. Our desire was not to endorse the over-50 porn star lifestyle or advocate for it — that’s not what we do — but to give people something to read and think about, to be amused or mildly provoked, as they choose. The picture was not risqu
