Star: Broken steet lights, important. Giffords’ shattered door, not so much.

by David Safier

I found two mentions of the vandalism at Giffords' office in this morning's Star. Emphasis on "found."

Rhonda Bodfield's article, Brewer to consider joining health-bill suit, talks about the vandalism in the last 5th of the article. More specifically, the mention begins in the 17th paragraph under the subhead, "The reaction."

Might as well not be there for all the readership paragraph 17 gets, especially under the head, "The reaction."

It's also mentioned in the editorial, Health-care law is a big positive for America. Here it's way up in paragraph 4. Thoughtful readers who want the editorial commentary will find that one.

But no picture anywhere in the paper.

Meanwhile, here's a featured story in today's Star:

Broken streetlights put park owner in a dark mood

Here's the gripping photo that goes with the story:

 

Compare that with the borderline-iconic photo of Giffords office, post
vandalism. (More photos here.) Veteran Star journalists must have felt genuine pain at leaving a gripping photo like that out of the paper. I wonder, how many extra copies would have been sold from newsstands with that photo above the fold?

The result? Only careful readers of the Star, or people who happened to catch the story on the Star website, will have a chance to learn about the story.

Unless, of course, they tuned in to Rachel Maddow last night, where the photo was featured.

Oh, and they could have seen a minute-long story on the local Fox TV news. (Fox TV! I guess those folks know a dramatic story when they see one.)

And on local ABC News.

And Sierra Vista readers could find a stand-alone story in The Herald: Giffords’ Tucson office vandalized; connection assumed.

And an AP story is in the LA Times.

And CNN covers it as one of three cases of vandalism at Democratic offices around the country.

But hey, Tucson's only daily decided the story of vandalism at the Tucson office of one of Tucson's U.S. Representatives didn't merit its own headline or a photo. They buried it out of sight.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you our own Arizona Daily Star.