The Elephant in the Room

Missing headlines in the daily press

By Jack V. Booch

From long habit, I start my day every morning with The New York Times. On May 23, 2007, the headlines consisted of two stories about the Iraq war, and two stories about the U.S. Congress, along with other pressing national and international concerns. The most gripping of the bunch was a story announcing the capitulation of congress over deadlines for withdrawal from Iraq—a story of great interest to each and every American.

I then moved on to the front page of The Columbian, only to find to my shock and dismay that not only was the congressional battle with the president over Iraq missing from the headlines on the front page, but so was any mention of any international news stories whatsoever.

What, you may ask, is more important than ending the war in Iraq? On this occasion at least, our local daily featured the ongoing machinations at the Port of Vancouver and the visitation of a pair of nifty historic steam engines to the area. Steam engines? Steam engines! What about Iraq?   

I then turned to The Oregonian to discover that no Iraq headlines appeared on its front page either. Instead, the Blazers got the number one pick in the NBA draft, and a bill was discussed that would clear cigarette smoke from bingo halls. With more than a hundred soldiers from Oregon and Washington already killed in Iraq, it is unconscionable that our two largest daily papers neglect to feature discussion about the key moments in the debate over how to extricate ourselves from the nightmare overseas.

Upon closer examination, this gaffe in the local press appears to be par for the course. The decision by daily papers to feature local issues at the expense of covering broader ones is a conscious choice. As daily papers around the country cannibalize one another in an effort to survive declining advertising revenues and competition from the Internet, a tendency toward focusing on local issues and local concerns has presented itself as an economically viable option for regionally based institutions. The trouble is, such an approach ignores the traditional responsibility of the daily press to keep the citizenry well informed about the doings of the government and happenings in the wider world day-to-day.

I am distressed by the abrogation of the daily press of its responsibility to enlighten the public about national and international issues. As a contributor to a small, alternative newspaper, I can certainly appreciate the value of focusing on the community and fostering a local identity, but daily newspapers are supposed to be our link to hard news and events in the global community. We do not exist in a bubble, after all. It would seem obvious, but perhaps those institutions posing as our conduits for breaking news require a reminder that events outside the Northwest are of significant concern to folks here at home. We live in an ever-changing and volatile environment. Only accurate and timely reporting and analysis about the most important issues of the day can prepare us to survive, succeed and prosper, wherever we may happen to live.