Shocked, just shocked

To the editor:

I am amazed at some of the items that come to us from each of the news media outlets. Is it the news, or an effort to be first with the news? Television has “breaking news alerts” and the “crawler” is continuous. The newspaper has the headlines to catch your eye.

We should notice the stories that don’t make the front page. When President George W. Bush did not go out to the Gulf of Mexico and confront Hurricane Katrina but allowed it to come into Louisiana, dislodging wards of the state, that was news! We are talking front page here! The very idea that President Bush did not even try to turn the storm away was almost treason in itself.

However, this paper printed, “Piece of history in peril,” (May 26, page A3), a story about the oldest black city in Alabama going under, physically and financially. Their once flourishing infrastructure has collapsed and the town is nearly deserted. I did not know that there were any “black only” towns. President Barack Obama has done nothing to prevent this loss of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He had had plenty of time to correct this with bailout programs, but for some reason has looked the other way. I guess he figures if you help one, the others will find out and want help, too.

Sometime it’s best to leave a situation alone until you really have a story. Take Roland S. Martin, for example. With his take on the Sarah Palin/David Letterman issue, “Sarah Palin, the joke’s on you, my dear,” (June 16, page A6), he put both feet in his mouth since Letterman’s apology was made and accepted.

And John Fisher’s column, “Why do so many like President Obama?” (June 9, page A8) was the poorest excuse for journalism from someone with his credentials to appear in this newspaper. I hope he’s not being paid for that. He can do better, much better.

SAMUEL V. SHELTON

Pelham, N.C.