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Readers Are Bothered by I.R.S. Coverage, an Amanda Knox Feature, and Too-Thin Models

Here’s the Monday roundup:

Many readers were critical of how The Times covered misdeeds by the Internal Revenue Service, which admitted targeting conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status with special scrutiny.

In essence, these readers believed The Times gave too little prominence to the story initially in Saturday’s paper and placed emphasis on the wrong aspect of the situation - the apology and the politics rather than the problem itself.

Separately, some readers were also perturbed by the Book Review’s decision to interview Amanda Knox in its “By the Book” feature. Ms. Knox is accused of killing her roommate in Italy and is the author of a new book, “Waiting to Be Heard.” And still others objected to the photograph of a young woman in a black swimsuit and a leather jacket on the cover of Sunday’s T Magazine.

Let’s take them one by one.

I.R.S. Coverage. A reader, Jack Liebau, was one of many who questioned The Times’s impartiality in reporting on the revelation that the I.R.S. had targeted conservative groups.

The Washington Post has the story as its lead on A1 this morning. The Boston Globe has it on Page A1, below the fold. The New York Times has the story on A11, below the fold. Do you think this placement would be the same if this had occurred in a Bush administration, and the story was the I.R.S. targeting liberal groups? Is the editorial decision regarding placement wrong by the Post or Globe â€" or was it yours? Is your decision-making process tainted in any way by a March 8, 2012 New York Times editorial, “I.R.S. does its job,” praising the I.R.S. in the way it treats “tea party groups”?

Another reader, Richard Crane, noted the emphasis in Monday’s article (which did appear on the front page) on the politics of the situation and asked, “Does New York Times report, or advocate?”

On Twitter, the veteran journalist Jeff Greenfield framed the question this way:

I agree that The Times seemed to play down the story originally, placing it inside the paper and emphasizing the second-day angle of the apology rather than the misconduct itself. In Monday’s paper, the headline, as Mr. Greenfield noted, emphasized the Republicans seizing on the issue rather than the widening problem. A Wall Street Journal front-page headline, by contrast, read, “Wider Problems Found at IRS.”

Many on the right - as noted last week in my blog posts about Benghazi - do not think they can get a fair shake from The Times. This coverage won’t do anything to dispel that belief.

Amanda Knox’s “By the Book” Feature. Jeff Dow of Waterloo, Iowa, was more tactful than many others in his comment on this feature in the Times Book Review on Sunday. He wrote: “I was surprised the Sunday Book Review chose Amanda Knox for the author profile. Not the type of author I expect from The Times.”

Faith McLellan, a French reader, wondered, “Is the editor really out of serious options?”

It did seem a strange choice to me, as well, reading almost like a parody, with questions like “What was your reading life in prison?” On Twitter, John Kubie had a similar thought:

Pamela Paul, the newly appointed editor of the Book Review, responded to my question as follows:

The general goal of “By the Book” is to show not only what seasoned writers are reading, but also to show the impact books have on the lives of writers new to the craft, musicians, artists, actors, politicians and other public figures. Ms. Knox, as a person whose life was so often in the public eye even as her private life remained unknown, struck us as an interesting choice. What a person chooses to read in prison is, of course, a perennially fascinating subject, and while other media outlets explored different aspects of Ms. Knox’s life and legal case, we thought readers of the Book Review might be interested in learning about this side of her.

The T Magazine Photographs. Some readers found the cover photo and inside display objectionable because of their suggestions of bondage. (A summary read: “Harnessing the dark side with black bikinis and a leather cover-up.”) Others were disturbed by the youth and extreme slenderness of the cover model.

Jane Sherman of Westport, Conn., wrote:

My reaction to the cover of the Sunday New York Times Style Magazine, which I sent to the editor Deborah Needleman, is: “Where did you get this child for your cover? The photo represents kiddy porn and I object.”

Even if the model is over 18 (and I’m sure she is, to be legal) the makeup, stance, clothing and her very youthful appearance make the image one of a child in provocative dress with an adult message. Where is her mother? I’m a long time print subscriber to The New York Times and I don’t want to read a newspaper that’s moving into sleaze for dirty old men.

Meredith Wheeler, a reader who lives in France and described herself as a former writer and producer at ABC News, wrote:

As a woman, I was infuriated to see the current cover of T Magazine, which featured an anorexic-looking model. The additional photos in the shoot featured in the magazine were of similar super-thin models â€" and this on Mother’s Day weekend, when we should be celebrating some more realistic picture of womanhood. Haven’t we moved beyond this? Hasn’t the debate in fashion over the promotion of these wretchedly thin models been thoroughly discussed? Do we really have to fight this issue within The New York Times in 2013?

Deborah Needleman, T Magazine editor, responded with the following when I shared the reaction with her:

I’ve gotten a lot of comments from people loving the images!

Julia Nobis, the model, is a 20-year-old undergraduate studying medicine. We chose her because of her strong looks and the personality she is able to project. She is rather thin for my taste, as most models are, and I considered adding some fat to her with Photoshop, but decided that as it is her body, I’d let it be. Fashion photography involves a bit of fantasy, and often some edge, and while the bathing suits are strappy and have buckles, that is a far cry from bondage â€" either showing it or advocating it. “Fifty Shades of Grey” is racier and more explicit than these images.

Although I certainly understand the readers’ objections, I found the photographs arresting but pretty mild, especially by today’s fashion magazine standards.

3:56 p.m. | Updated  Ms. Needleman’s reference to Photoshopping has raised some questions about how photographs are treated in The Times, including in its magazines. I’ll be looking into this, so stay tuned.