This morning, I was having my coffee and reading my local newspaper when it dawned on me that something was indeed missing from this noble rag. Well, on the front page and in the main section there was the story of the hostage who managed to escape his captors in Iraq. That was good news. An article about how local military families are waiting for their loved ones to come home. That was nice. Next was an article about how American troops in Afghanistan killed four “suspected” terrorists. Well, mixed feelings on that one depending on whether they really were terrorists, or merely some guys going to the post office. There was a story about Arnie’s nice speech on the Holocaust in Jerusalem. I could have lived with that being on a less-prominent page. Same with the news that ear infections are rampant. A few articles about local politicians who were tossing their hats into the ring for dogcatcher, ho-humm, and there was a bunch of feel-good stories about kids’ achievements in school; nice, but not the stuff that front pages are made of.
I’ll give you three guesses as to what was missing, and bet you will get it on the first one!
Right! Not a single mention anywhere about the eleven soldiers who died yesterday in Iraq!! Not in the main section, not in the local section, not in the home section, the money section, the sports section! Nowhere! Not surprising though since it seems even the major networks and online news pages are ignoring it, with just a few exceptions.
I want to add that my hometown is a military town chock full of families of troops overseas and veterans of several wars. Pensacola is the “Cradle of Naval Aviation,” as well as being next door to the vast Eglin AFB. What happens to our troops is of great concern to all in this city. And yet, the Pensacola New Journal does not even find the deaths of eleven soldiers worthy of note in their entire newspaper! I suspect there is more than just a bit of politics going on here. And it is surprising in light of the results of a current WEAR TV online poll which showed that the majority of the area’s population, 73%, disagreed strongly with the preemption of Ted Koppel’s roll call of the dead last week at WEAR, our Sinclair-owned local station.
Well, now I know why they call them “local rags.” That’s all the paper is good for. The problem is, many of our national newspapers have become “rags” as well. I won’t even start ranting about the broadcast media which are just as bad. Apparently, if you want the news, both good and bad, you have to go in search of it yourself. I didn’t originally intend this to be a solicitation for donations but — well, dammit, yes, I guess I do!! Antiwar.com has consistently brought us all the news including that which otherwise would be buried on the back pages or tossed in some newsroom’s trash can, news from every corner of the global community. I am proud to be one of the volunteers here, proud to be helping in my very small way to keep the information flowing for you. Please help as well by contributing to keep us up and running.
To add to this post:
One of our readers, Pete in NC, wrote to me that try as he might, he couldn’t locate a contact link at the Pensacola News Journal. I had to call the newspaper to find out where it was myself, but here it is for those who have something to say to them: Customer Contact
Thank you, Pete!