The Press: The Uninteresting War

In the newsroom of the Vancouver (B.C.) Sun (circ. 182,000), City Editor Earl Smith groused that he could not get good local stories on Page One because there were too many war stories. He thought they were overplayed. Said he: “If we ran the same Korean war story every day, no one would notice.” Answered Assistant Managing Editor Hymie Koshevoy: “We’ll try it.” Without ‘tipping off the staff, the Sun ran the same Canadian Press story for three days straight last week under the same headline: REDS BLASTED FROM VITAL KOREAN KNOB.

There were no calls from readers, the Canadian Press, or from reporters on competing papers. Of the Sun’s own 50-man editorial staff, only one reporter spotted the repetition. After the third day, the Sun confessed its trick. “If the paper omits a comic strip . . . football scores or the horse-racing handicap column, the office switchboard begins winking frantically . . . But the readers’ reaction to seeing the same Korean war story three times was deafening silence . . .

“Is it that British Columbians aren’t interested in the war? Or is it because there are no new developments? . . . Or are the . . . wire services falling down on their job by failing to find stories which stimulate the public interest?”