When St. Paul Pioneer Press associate editor Mark Yost ran a pretty jingoistic column bemoaning the lack of patriotic reporting on the Iraq war, he may have forgotten a pretty key audience: his own papers’ reporters.
And apparently, those reporters are a little more familiar with what his paper has actually covered than he is. One of them, Charles Laszewski, fired back last week.
I was baffled by your statement that stories about the families and others here making a difference go largely unreported. We have written thousands of column inches every time a military unit from here or Wisconsin leaves or returns home and how their families feel. We have covered every death involving our fighting men and women and attended most, if not all, of their funerals. We have written stories about a couple who were married by video conference between Stillwater and Iraq. We have a lovely photo hanging in the sixth floor hallway from the story of the teacher who was surprised by her son returning from the war unexpectedly and walking into her classroom. We have run info boxes on what you can do to help. These are just the ones I recall off the top of my head.
….With your column, you have spat on the copy of the brave men and women who are doing their best in terrible conditions. More than 20 reporters have died in Iraq from around the world. You have insulted them and demeaned them, and to a much lesser degree, demeaned the reporters everywhere who have been threatened with bodily harm, who have been screamed at, or denied public records, just because they wanted to present the closest approximation to the truth they could.
I am embarrassed to call you my colleague.
Incidentally, why isn’t Yost griping about the lack of positive coverage on the domestic front? A quick glance at their news section reveals lots of downbeat stories: fires, a hurricane, a heat wave, crime, crime, elder abuse, crime… The bad-news stories easily outnumber the good-news ones.
