As I write this, it's the 35th anniversary of Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon, and, naturally, the R-J has marked the occasion with a stirring editorial attacking Mexico's teachers union. Another small step for mankind. (To be fair to the paper of record, it did note the milestone—with a photo, on page 8A, of Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon.)
The slight coverage didn't surprise me; whatever the mission's historic import, there's no way the R-J's gonna celebrate that big a waste of tax money. If Armstrong and Aldrin had gotten to the moon in a triumph of free-market vitality, I suspect it would have been remembered on 1A.
In the spirit of this review issue, I'll give the Tuesday paper 1.5 stars: the half-star noting its lack of historical ambition, but a full star for proving there's no country the R-J won't go to in order to bash teachers. Gumption should be rewarded, after all. (The Sun ran a routine wire story on the moon shot but at least played it on 3A. Two stars.)
This review issue came about in response to a question that is at once simple yet of cosmic significance: What should we put on the cover this week? It's a question that, no matter how many times you ask it—for example, 52 times a year—gets no easier to answer. Then it hit us: Let's review stuff! But not the stuff usually reviewed. Great idea! So we set about compiling an appropriate list.
What, one fresh-faced young staffer squeaked, heart welling with True Journalism, is the reader-service aspect of this package? While that cub reporter is now answering phones at the Nifty Nickel, the question is probably a good one. I could answer it like a proper editor, with high-minded bullshit about True Journalism, but I'll tell a story instead.
When I was a teenager, I had an older friend who owned many dangerous toys: a motorcycle, a boat, four-wheel-drive vehicles. He would roar up to the house with one or more of these items and whisk me off to do really stupid things: cliff-jumping at Lake Mead, high-speed motorcycle shenanigans. Each time, as we pulled away, Mom would stand worriedly in the doorway and wail, "Why are you doing this?"—her way of asking, What is the reader-service aspect of this?
Our answer was always the same—five words my mother came to detest: "Think of the fun factor!"
So that's my answer here, too. Reviews of large bugs, vacant lots, offbeat stores, keychains and smog are fun. We've got Roberto Lovato's feature on religion and Stacy J. Willis' report on food handling to nail down the True Journalism. How do you measure reader service? I asked the young staffer. I think a few minutes of diverting reading counts as reader service. He agreed, or that's what I think he was signaling as security dragged him away.
The joy of paper like this is that we get to think of the fun factor all the time, and this morning, as I wished I could read more about the first moon walk, it occured to me that "Think of the fun factor" was what Neil Armstrong was probably really trying to say.