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By Miriam Raftery
October 25, 2011 (San Diego) – On the morning of October 21, President Barack Obama announced that he is ending the Iraq War and bringing home all of our troops by year’s end. That afternoon, NATO announced an end to operations in Libya, ending two wars in one day in which the U.S. led military efforts.
So why wasn’t this headline news at the San Diego Union-Tribune’s online edition?
These were the top news stories in newspapers around the world and across the US. San Diego is a military town and also has a large Iraqi population, yet the Union-Tribune’s online edition, SignOn San Diego, had nothing visible on its homepage on these stories even by nightfall. Do the editors not think readers care about two wars ending in one day?
I wrote a letter to the newspaper’s readers’ representative complaining about this glaring omission. I received a response acknowledging the validity of my point. The response indicated that the paper did run a headline in its print edition announcing the end of the Iraq War—after I lodged my complaint letter. I was told, however, that the paper’s online edition is devoted mainly to “local news.”
Really? Should readers in San Diego be left ignorant about world or national news? Plus doesn’t the end of the Iraq war have huge local impacts in a town with several military bases and a large Iraqi immigrant population?
Below is a screenshot taken at 7:25 p.m. on October 21, as evidence of these glaring omissions.
While there may have been mentions buried on an inside page, two wars ending clearly deserved to be the lead stories. Does anyone really believe that the chosen headline (“What are you going to do this weekend?”) was more important? Or that some lesser headlines such as“Gumby charged with misdemeanor burglary” couldn’t have been bumped off the front page to make room for news that’s long been awaited by many soldiers, military families, peace activists, and local Iraqi residents?
Whether you supported or opposed the war, you deserved to be informed by our region’s largest newspaper that a longer-running conflict than World War II has finally ended.
Miriam Raftery is a national award-winning journalist who has headed and participated in media watch committees for various local organizations and attended a National Media Reform Conference covering issues of media bias, media justice and media reform.
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