Now, Which Way Does the PJS Lean?

It’s always laughable to read letters to the PJS editor complaining about their “liberal” attitudes and their left-leaning ways. The PJS is far from a left wing paper. Far.

Take, for instance, today. On A1, above the fold, in bold headline, we find that the Death Tolls Are Down In Iraq. The story is a good one for the Bush Administration, overall. Actually, it’s a good one for many Americans and deserves to be front page news. But that’s not the problem. The problem today is what is NOT on the front page, above the fold. The problem is the story on page A6, the last page of the first section.

The story that says: “Report: Blackwater Is Out of Control”. Of course, this story isn’t front page at pjstar.com, either. What does the story say? The story says  that a “critical report” released by a “key congressional committee” says Blackwater mercenaries…oops, sorry, that’s “contractors”…are, among other things, covering up shootings of innocent civilians, has “had to fire dozens of guards over the past three years for problems ranging from misuse of weapons, alcohol and drug violations, inappropriate conduct and violent behavior”, and “In more than 80 percent of the incidents, called ‘escalation of force,’ Blackwater’s guards fired the first shots even though the company’s contract with the State Department calls for it to use defensive force only, it said.”

See the problem here? It’s quite obvious. The story that’s critical of the war is on the back page, the “feel-better” story is on the front. Instead of an important, disgusting report about the actions of a small group of war-hungry mercenaries operating under American colors, we get an oversized picture of pumpkins on the front page.  I’ve got a big problem with that. I wonder how many people who browsed the print edition and skimmed the online edition even saw this story today. Come to think of it, the PJS is not the only so-called liberal outfit to ignore this story. In fact, here is the current headline above the story at CNN.com: Blackwater boss defends contractors’ ‘honorable’ work.

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