by Steve Reinbrecht
The story on the Reading Eagle’s front page Sunday – the spot
traditionally reserved for the best story of the week – is another example of a
bunch of words that look like journalism but really are not.
I can see how this happened – some old white male editor in
the newsroom really does believe this is an issue, in a hip kind of women’s-lib
way, and assigned it.
“Debate over the draft,” the headline says. “Inside the issue.”
But it’s not a “debate” or an “issue.” Who in their right
minds would say that though young men have to register for the military draft, young
women should not have to?
In fact, nobody in the 1,200-word story says that women
should not register, except for a Kutztown University sophomore who says the
idea is “scary.”
Because it doesn’t have an idea holding it together, the
article disintegrates into a mushy discussion of whether anybody should be
drafted, or whether women should fight.
The last time anyone was drafted was 1973.
Berks County needs media with the will and competence to
identify and explore REAL issues in the community, and many are inadequately examined.
- · Health-care access for poor people
- · Urban economic development
- · Reading politics
- · Any sort of story about jail operations
- · Recidivism
- · Bail amounts
- · The county nursing home
- · Crime trends
- · The laughable county tourism and visitors bureau
- · Trends in child-pornography arrests
- · Curriculum issues in public schools
- · New businesses springing up around the new hotel in Reading
- · Particle and lead pollution
- · Municipal government transparency
- · How to get treatment if you are addicted to opiates
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