Thursday, March 20, 2008

I probably should have expected this

This week marked the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War. How did the Town Crier commemorate this tragic milestone?
Seriously, this was the cover story. Here's the lede:

Many decisions across Los Altos are made under the influence of coffee – companies come together, civic policy is dissected, book club alliances are formed and neighbors nestle for a chat.

The coffee bean is one of the world’s largest agricultural exports by value, and the United States is the No. 1 coffee importer, trailed by Germany and Japan. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Americans consumed an average of 24.2 gallons of coffee in 2005 – enough fluid to fill two tanks in a typical sedan.

Coffee consumption peaked in volume in the 1940s, when Americans drank nearly twice as much as they do now. But today boutique drinks like espressos, lattes, mochas and coffee-style beverages that totally lack bean, such as chai or high-end teas, share the mass market.

The only mention of the war in this week's issue was Charlotte Jarmy's discussion of why she doesn't care about it.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

hmm, i got confused reading parts of this obvious fluff piece. it's hard to believe these people are actually paid to write. it's unfortunate this paper stays alive much less win awards when desperately needed foreign bureaus for major papers are shutting down.

Anonymous said...

What's this crap doing where my news is supposed to do? If I want to learn about coffee I'd rather go to Wikipedia. That's even before you get into how poorly this is written.

Kathy Schrenk said...

And then there's the made-up word "undersung."

Anonymous said...

Why would you go looking for Iraq War news in the Los Altos Town Crier?

FYI,
The following week's issue's cover story was all about veterans...

Nemesis of Evil said...

The paper wrote an editorial five years ago blithely backing the invasion. Even if it hadn't, the war has had an effect on Los Altos, even though its backers would prefer to talk about coffee.

Anonymous said...

I think the TC is ok for local news. They just have to be more critical about what's going on in the community. I personally prefer the MV Voice or even the PA Daily.