The Difference

One could not ask for a clearer distinction between what newspapers should be and what they are becoming than today’s paper editions of the New York Times and the Star Tribune.

The featured photos on the front page of The Times were a series of three which perfectly illustrated the frustration that is Iraq. A Sunni grandmother who had been threatened by Shiite men was shielded by American and Kurdish soldiers, and the Shiites were arrested and taken away by the Americans. The third photo was of the woman’s granddaughters crying because their grandmother had just been shot dead by Shiites after the Americans left. (Here is the entire NY Times slideshow.)

The front page of the Strib featured a large movie still of the execrable Will Farrell in his latest assault on the intelligence of America, and a heart tugger of a man who wants to keep the memory of Jackie Robinson alive 60 years after he integrated Major League baseball.

Both front pages made me ill.