The New York Post has never been one for tact.
Tuesday’s cover page, however, took its reputation one step closer to the garbage can — and was a blaringly clear reminder of the damage of silently standing by, or exploiting, others’ pain.
The full-page photo depicts a man struggling to climb up from a subway track as a train approaches. It is accompanied by the headline: “Pushed on the subway track, this man is about to die,” with “DOOMED” emblazoned along the bottom.
The man, Ki Suk Han, was fatally struck moments later. Han, a 58-year-old father, attempted to intervene with a man who was harassing other subway riders, and the man subsequently pushed Han. The photo was captured by a freelance Post photog who happened to be waiting for the train.
While only the people on the platform at the time can attest to how quickly the situation happened, one can feasibly question if the photographer — who said he was trying to alert the subway driver with his flash — was able to get his camera out and get a focused shot of Han, why couldn’t he have used those seconds instead to try to pull Han up? And why did no one else try to help him? While some may argue that passengers didn’t want to lose their own lives to save that of a stranger, the photo shows that Han was standing with his hands on the ledge — all it would have taken would be several people willing to rush to pull him upwards. The issue is further compounded by the fact that the publication chose to exploit the last tragic moments of Han’s life, and his family’s pain, for profit. Surely, the eye-catching photo has tongues wagging around the nation. But at what cost?
This situation is a microcosm for the oft-used arguments utilized when LGBTs and other minorities face harassment. From classrooms to corporate workplaces, bystanders dismiss their passive role in enabling discrimination by saying it wasn’t their place to intervene, they thought someone else would do something or they didn’t want to risk their own reputation or position by getting involved. And when victims become the unwitting targets of people like cyber bullies who pollute online stories of LGBT discrimination with hate speech, or of antigay organizations who use stories of LGBT harassment to rally their troops against so-called religious persecution, their pain is further magnified for others’ gain.
While the New York Post undoubtedly made a giant ethical misstep in its coverage, at least the gratuitous cover showed readers one thing: Standing by and doing nothing does not look good.