Media Watch

[Don Coombs <dcoombs@uidaho.edu>]

The Wednesday issue of the Daily News had a front page story about the
alternate routes for highway 95 south of town. Good lead: "On paper,
optional routes for a new, improved U.S. highway 95 spread out like a
many-headed snake from Reisenauer Hill before converging at the entrance
to Moscow."

But why not show us a map?

I would have liked a map because it might have helped me understand the
story, which said "The route furthest west runs along Paradise
Ridge," while the furthest east route pretty much follows the existing
highway. Note that I'm not saying the story is wrong. It had always
seemed to me, though, that Paradise Ridge was east of the highway.

Meanwhile, in this morning's USA Today, there's a story about a study
which for the first time linked pot smoking to an increased risk of a
sudden heart attack. As reported in the online news digest, Slate News
(http://slate.msn.com), "How much of a risk?" (A question the editors at
the Spokesman Review would never think to ask, because it would only
interest bean counters?)

And the answer from USA Today: "Not as much as a snort of coke, but twice
as much as couch potato sex."

The Slate News editor ends by saying "Plan your weekend accordingly."

Don Coombs