Where’s the war news?
A retired Globe-Democrat staffer called to criticize our day-in and day-out reporting on the war in Iraq. Not enough, not prominent enough, she said.
Five years into the war, is an 8-inch story in the middle of Page A5 enough? (”Iraqis push for sovereignty in security pact with U.S.”) At the onset of the war, war news dominated the front page. Did so for months. The past couple years, war news is more likely to be inside the main news section than on the front page.
The war is important, she said. More important than “Violence foils Haiti tourism goals,” which dominated today’s Page A5. More important than “Studio fire destroys classic movie sets,” which dominated Page A2.
I can’t argue that the war isn’t “more important” than those stories. But in terms of news and interest, are those developments in Iraq worth greater display? Obviously, our news editors and page designers last night thought not.
The retired Globe-Democrat staffer said politics skews our judgment. We bury the war, she charged, because we’re liberal Democrats. Democrat or Republican, incremental news is incremental news.



Gee, I tend to agree with “her”. However, perhaps she has forgotten that the Iraq War may have moved, not because the P-D is not reporting on it, but because it is baseball season.
Although I was surprised at today’s front page (Monday June 2) that the Card’s win was not above the fold as usual.