So I had lunch with the Mayor of Wichita, Carlos Mayans, the other day for the first time. During the lunch he brought up a story about the Wichita Eagle; a depressing story about their desperate need for seemingly anything derogatory to put in the paper. According to the Mayor, a reporter from the paper called him late one afternoon while he and his family were sitting down to dinner.

The man, not wanting to let the opportunity go, despite Mayan's protests, asked him a few questions regarding the recent snow storm (Jan 07) and how he felt about the performance of the snow removal street crews. The Mayor's only response was that he did not have time for an interview and that there were well-paid professionals at the City Building to answer those types of questions.

The quote they put in the paper, you ask? 'The Mayor is quoted as saying the employees at the City Building are highly paid.'

This, keep in mind, in an article about the snow storm. What???

The Mayor also brought to my attention there have been several events in the last few weeks the Eagle did not even bother to send a reporter to cover! The Mayor and staff had cookies and punch at the City Arts for 200 homeless, afterwhich they treated them to a movie at the Old Town Warren.

200 people and the Wichita Eagle did not so much as cover it.

There were a few other similar examples, but the point is the local media is just as ridiculous as national media when it comes to covering Scandal and Suffering, rather than the good that occurs in Wichita (or the Nation, or the World) on a daily basis.

Bad News Sells....great. Does that mean the media has to seek it out above all others? Does that mean the good things deserve to just go by unnoticed?

~Dubya