Truth in Advertising

The Wall Street Journal this morning reported on the controversial increase in business sponsorship revenue, in exchange for on-air announcements, at “commercial free” National Public radio and its affiliate member stations. “Public radio executives are aware of the fine line they must tread,” writes Sarah McBride. “They don’t even call it advertising—to them it’s ‘sponsorship’ or ‘underwriting.’”

There’s no such tightrope walk at Baltimore’s WYPR-FM. In its 2004 tax return, the one most recently available, the public radio station describes its $1,755,911 underwriting revenue this way: “WYPR radio provides advertising for clients, in return for underwriting fees that enables WYPR to broadcast programs of intellectual integrity and cultural merit.”

See Word

A cute thing happened on the way to court-martial Monday. Baltimore Sun photographer Amy Davis shot Sgt. Jennifer Scala, a witness in a military prosecution of alleged Abu Ghraib guard misconduct. The uniformed Scala was photographed leaving the military tribunal carrying a book by Inga Muscio, Cunt: A Declaration of Independence, whose title epithet was clearly visible in the photo, which ran on page A3 of the newspaper yesterday.

Muscio’s book, described by Publisher’s Weekly as a “self-indulgent exercise in feminist reclamation,” is a cultural-anthropological celebration of the c-word. Perhaps Scala was declaring her own girlish independence by carrying the book, or just looking for a way to amuse herself while waiting to testify. She has already demonstrated some penchant for unladylike (though not necessarily un-soldierlike) preoccupation; In reporter Stephen Kiehl’s accompanying story, he writes that Scala testified at trial that while working at Abu Ghraib she allowed guard dogs to “lick peanut butter off her breasts” as part of a bet with other military prison guards.

The publication of the photo apparently aroused the ire of some Sun readers yesterday. The paper ran this correction today: "A photograph published yesterday with an article about the court-martial of a guard at Abu Ghraib prison showed a book cover that contained an obscenity. The obscenity went unnoticed during editing and should not have been published. Publication of the photo violates The Sun's guidelines.
The Sun apologizes for the oversight."