Reality Check

SYRACUSE -- Al Gore spoke here on Thursday night. Tickets went on sale Sept. 2 and sold out in 30 minutes; unfortunately, I didn’t get a ticket. The local newspaper’s coverage of the event was awful. Here’s a letter I just shot off to the editor of that paper, The Post-Standard:

I was very disappointed with your downplayed coverage of Al Gore’s visit. As one of the many who were unable to get tickets for Thursday night’s sold-out event, I looked forward to reading about Gore’s presentation in Friday’s paper.
But your story ran below the fold in the local section, with no photo, and included no comments from the roughly 3,000 event attendees. Instead, on A-1, you had story about a school district failing to inspect its elevators and a dominant photo featuring solar panels and willow shrubs. How thrilling.
Does The Post-Standard need a reality check? Big names like Gore don’t stop in Syracuse very often. Giving this story better coverage would not have demonstrated any political bias; it simply would have made your front page more compelling. (JM)