It was a sad day when the Hartford Courant was purchased by the Los Angeles Times empire, but a sadder day still, apparently, when the Times sold itself a few months back. These things happen gradually, but it has lately dawned on me that this once proud paper, the oldest in the nation, is descending into tabloidism in a big way. The major national and international stories of the day, if they appear at all, are relegated to the inner pages. This wouldn’t be so bad if important local issues dominated the front page, but they don’t. Not unless you think that the issues that matter are tawdry tales about rapists and murderers, human interest stories about locksmiths driven from their offices, or almost two full pages of text about a girls swimming team.
Maybe the Courant feels it has to compete with the local TV news, which I gather concentrate on stories designed to increase fear levels while keeping people safely ignorant of things that pose far greater dangers to them. It’s quite sad. The Courant was an excellent paper in its day. Done in by media concentration.
Before I leave the subject, I do want to say that despite what I’ve just written, I really need to know more about David Pollitt’s pending release to a suburban neighborhood in Southington. What I find remarkable about this story is the fact that it is apparently a unique event. Apparently rapists have never before been released from the prisons of Connecticut. Foolish me. I would have thought it happens all the time, and that our cities get a disproportionate number of them when the releases take place. But I must be wrong, else we would have been reading stories like the Pollitt story for the last several years. Certainly the fact that this particular rapist is going to the suburbs has nothing to do with the massive publicity the story is getting, does it? And it would be overly cynical to think that the media is stirring the hornets nest, wouldn’t it? And all I can say about Susan Handy is shame on her for refusing to keep him in prison illegally. What kind of example is she setting for the children? I much prefer the approach that Jodi and Dick took-asking a judge to do something they both knew and admitted she should not do. That’s real political courage, that is.
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