Nude Protesters Make Page 1 (Media Review)

We were shocked to see seven naked butts on the front page of the Northwest Arkansas Times on March 20 under a banner that read “Women of the world say no to war.” Then we figured, what the heck.

The war protest by a women’s group called Code Pink was a newsworthy event, and the fact that they stood naked in the intersection of Dickson Street and College Avenue in Fayetteville made it even more newsworthy.

The Times handled the coverage about as professionally as possible. The paper published a photo by Robbie Hammer that was taken from far enough away to make the naked butts identifiable (as naked butts, that is) but not close enough to make them offensive. After all, there’s something humorous about the human rear, especially if viewed from afar.

The more conservative Morning News of Springdale published a Page 1 photo of one protester, but the picture was strategically cropped to leave out the protester’s posterior.