I almost always take issue with the "breaking newsworthiness" (ok, not a word) of the Washington Post's email news alerts and afternoon updates. To me, breaking news alerts should be reserved for things like Dick Cheney is dead or a tiger escaped from the National Zoo and is on a murderous rampage through Adams Morgan. Once-in-a-blue moon type deals. Yet whenever I get a Washington Post breaking news alert, it's always something wonky like "Housing prices fell slightly less than originally anticipated, the Obama administration announced last week," or "Someone you've never heard of is retiring from ABC News today -- retirement not to go into effect for three years." The sort of news items that literally 4 people care about -- and I guarantee you that those four people read the same news someplace else first.
But that's really a separate issue from my frustration with today's Washington Post Afternoon Update: Petraeus condemns Fla. church's plan to burn Korans.
At the outset, this could seem like a legitimate news item. You have the top US commander in Afghanistan commenting on a hot domestic issue -- Christians' demonstrative hatred of Muslims. But read past the opening lede and you find out, just who are these people who I'm sure we'll hear all about on Meet the Press for the next three weeks? How widespread must this movement be to warrant such urgent condemnation from the TOP US COMMANDER IN AFGHANISTAN?
The Dove World Outreach Center, a 50-member evangelical Christian church in Gainesville, Fla., announced plans to burn the Islamic holy books on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. At the Kabul protest, residents burned an effigy of Dove World pastor Terry Jones.
FIFTY PEOPLE? Why do we give a rat's ass what 50 crazy people are doing this weekend? You can't walk through downtown DC with finding 50 crazy people. What about that crazy lady who's been literally camped out in front of the White House for the past 20 years? I don't see her on the front page of the Washington Post -- and she lives in Barack Obama's front freakin yard!
As a side note I find it laughable that people in Kabul had ever even heard of the Dove World pastor Terry Jones, much less knew what he looked like well enough to make an effigy of him. Although I'm sure his ridiculous facial hair would make it fairly easy.
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