Anniversaries and memories
Deborah Howell, ombudsman at the Washington Post, writes about a common "problem" newspapers have -- deciding which historical anniversaries to write about. We didn't publish a full story about D-Day on its anniversary earlier this month, and we heard about it. (We published a story of the commemorations the next day.)
I got nailed last weekend by a reader who was angry we didn't make a note of Flag Day. It is, he told me, an issue of education and an issue of respect. I suppose. I can't think of any event in which I would feel disrespected if an anniversary story didn't show up in the paper. But maybe that's just me.
Howell writes:
How long must a newspaper commemorate an event of historic proportions? Not forever. No one who lived through the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination of President John F. Kennedy will ever forget it, but The Post didn't have a story last Nov. 22, and no one complained to me.
Time erases significance, and our tendency is to remember anniversaries when they end in a zero or a five. Next year, on the 65th anniversary of D-Day, The Post probably will have a story.
It makes me wonder when will be the time, far away, when a Sept. 11 passes with only a brief -- or no -- mention.