LA Times:

What makes the photograph disturbing to some readers is also what makes it newsworthy. An assault on a U.S. diplomatic mission, resulting in the death of an ambassador, is a very rare and significant event. The circumstances here made it particularly newsworthy: U.S. military action helped Libyans topple a dictator a year ago, and Stevens was well known to Libyans and admired by many.

The image of the stricken ambassador, apparently being tended to by Libyan civilians, vividly captured this important event. Times editors, after careful consideration and discussion, selected the least grisly of the available images. Our job is to present an unvarnished picture of the news, without carelessly offending our readers. That is the balance we tried to strike with the Stevens photo.

Mixed feelings.

Leaning more towards the argument that this shouldn’t have been the front page cover photo though.