You Didn't Read This In The Newspaper

Newspaper publishers have retreated to a local focus that gives them the best chance of retaining subscribers and favorable advertising rates. It's meant something different for readers when it comes to news topics beyond the city limits.

You Didn't Read This In The Newspaper People may have a good idea of when the city plans to tear up the local roads or hold a school board meeting from reading the paper. There are broader issues in the world, of course, and the retreat by newsprint has opened up the door for controversial stories to reach people through the Internet. Even so, many are missing out on topics they probably ought to consider. Military Commissions Act, like ones at ConsortiumNews, contend citizens are as subject as non-citizens to losing rights to a fair trial.

Then there is story number two, regarding the John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007. The obvious place for such debate should be on the broader public stage. Neither of these Acts have been perpetrated by fringe groups, regardless of one's political feelings; they have been passed by Congress and signed into law. But they aren't being discussed or investigated rigorously; only online do these matters receive further scrutiny. Project Censored comprises 25 stories, worthy of people reviewing them and asking questions. California Senator Dianne Feinstein won't enjoy story number 23, suggesting a massive conflict of interest regarding her Iraq votes and her husband's firms receiving billions in military construction contracts.

News isn't supposed to be relentlessly positive, and we aren't saying that it is. The printing presses and talking heads of major media don't need to be relentlessly silent, though.