Viewpoints
Army Recruitment Ad on Top
of Alaska News Page?
By Dan Mortenson
December 12, 2006
Tuesday AM
I'd like to know why an Army recruitment ad constitutes "news"
enough to put it at the top of your "Stories in the News"
page. An ad is an ad is an ad, and there is no justifiable way
to interpret the well-known fact that the Army wants recruits
as any sort of breaking news. ( http://www.sitnews.us/News/alaska.html
)
If there were some reason that Army recruiting was itself news
(meeting quotas, not meeting quotas, deciding to recruit gays,
etc...), that would qualify as news, but would still not be served
by a simple link to a recruiting page.
You should realise that having the Army's ad head up a page of
putative news links, makes your bias very clear to all that visit
that page, and furthermore makes a reader wonder about the slant
of the entire site. Journalism depends on some degree of objectivity
and trust of the source; and when one doesn't trust the standards
of the source, you have, well, FOX (FAUX) "News"; or
as Rush says, "I'm not a journalist -- I'm an entertainer!".
I've been referred to your site as a good source of local news,
and this is my second visit. After seeing this, however, what
looks like a blatantly servile attitude toward generalized militarism,
I'm not sure I'll be back.
If, however, this was meant as an actual ad, rather than an ad
disguised as news, you should have it somewhere other than in
a news column. If I'm judging harshly, or overestimating your
web savvy, I apologize. If so, please take this as one person's
feedback on the impression your page left on me.
Dan Mortenson
Ketchikan, AK
Received December 10, 2006 - Published December 12, 2006
About: "I'm a convenience-store
clerk in Ketchikan, AK"
Note: Comments published
on Viewpoints are the opinions of the writer
and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Sitnews.
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