The line that separates the offensive word or picture from the acceptable is ever-changing. The media's decisions about what to use responds to the public taste. Just as bikinis have replaced neck-to-knee bathing suits on public beaches, so have the boundaries of acceptability stretched in newspapers and on television and cable.

     This photo by Jim Avelis that appeared on the front page of The Tribune-Star in Terre Haute, Ind., would have caused some second thoughts 25 years ago. Was it too gruesome for readers? Should we put it on a page buried deep in the paper? Should we run it at all?

     Today, there are no second thoughts. We have been accustomed to reality through photos of starving children, torn bodies in Bosnia and the Middle East, and the sheer horror of the World Trade Center bombings.