Recently (Oct. 30) a wonderful thing happened for all of us on earth, both human and nonhuman: Lula da Silva won the presidency of Brazil!
It was great news because his opponent, Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump acolyte elected to the office in 2019, has since done everything he can to destroy the Amazon rainforest by opening it up to logging, cattle ranching, farming, and mining. Barring Trump-like efforts by Bolsonaro (whose advisors include Steve Bannon!) to overturn the election results, Lula will put a stop to that.
When I clicked on The Salt Lake Tribune the next two days, I expected to find some mention of this. After all, the Amazon rainforest dwarfs our own Great Salt Lake in terms of ecological importance, being called “The Earth’s Lungs” for good reason.
To my shock there was nothing — no mention at all of this monumental event! Likewise at The Tribune’s rival paper.
I then checked other regional newspapers such as the Denver Post and the Portland Oregonian. Same thing!
In contrast, every major newspaper in the U.S. and Europe gave front-page coverage to it.
I gather from this experience that regional newspapers, for budgetary reasons, are being forced to cut back on international news in favor of local stories, including lots of fluff.
This means that American citizens must instead (a) rely on the national papers with their costly subscription fees or (b) get sensationalist news (and heavy advertising) on nightly TV or (c) turn to the Wild West of social media.
It’s a situation that explains, I believe, why so many of our citizens are so uninformed about what’s going on in the world — or even in our own country.
Tom Huckin, Salt Lake City
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