On Tuesday, an explosion in the city of Abu Ghraib in Iraq killed 33 people. Yesterday, Slate’s Daniel Politi pointed out that this major event did not make the front page in any of our major newspapers.
This morning, the Washington Post printed an A-1 story that mentions how papers — including the Post itself — neglected to cover this item as a major world event:
In 2003, when America began its occupation, bombings with half the casualties of Tuesday’s suggested the United States might not prevail. Today, when America and its Iraqi allies seem to be winning, the attack failed to make the front page of the government newspaper.
For reasons too obvious and numerous to mention, this is an important story. “It was like the day Baghdad fell,” said the brother of one victim. But almost as important is the Post’s oblique mea culpa — the newspaper’s decision not to let this tragedy lie fallow just because it neglected to cover it properly when it was “breaking news.”
