Does the Media sensationalize, trivialize and infantize? Well, the Journal’s home page reflects the ranking of the paper’s front page today, though the difference in story emphasis is much more dramatic in the print version. There you’ll find the top story above the fold with a font normally reserved for cataclysms. We read that the mayor believes our local golf courses are in peril! Peril, people! Gasp. Farther down the page, below the fold, a smaller headline notes that suicides and accidental deaths are up in New Mexico. No telling what the suicide rate is among Journal readers, but shutting down the golf courses would dramatically reduce the death rate by lightning and skin cancer. Given that there are thousands of golf courses in the desert southwest, I doubt the suicide rate for golfers would rise much.
Many years ago, in response to Saint Pete intoning that all public lands must be available to ranchers, I recommended we graze cattle on the golf courses. Now, as the mayor and the Journal use this threat to galvanize the public into bullying the council on budgetary matters, I take my lead from Newty Gingrich circa 1994: let ’em close! mjh
Does the Media sensationalize, trivialize and infantize? Well, the Journal’s home page reflects the ranking of the paper’s front page today, though the difference in story emphasis is much more dramatic in the print version. There you’ll find the top story above the fold with a font normally reserved for cataclysms. We read that the mayor believes our local golf courses are in peril! Peril, people! Gasp. Farther down the page, below the fold, a smaller headline notes that suicides and accidental deaths are up in New Mexico. No telling what the suicide rate is among Journal readers, but shutting down the golf courses would dramatically reduce the death rate by lightning and skin cancer. Given that there are thousands of golf courses in the desert southwest, I doubt the suicide rate for golfers would rise much.