Perusing this morning’s edition of Kevin Cate’s excellent ‘Above the Fold Florida’ service, there is near unanimity among the state’s newspapers what the top story of the day is: The shutdown of the federal government. Even in Tampa Bay, where news of the Tampa Bay Rays making the post-season elbowed itself on to the front pages of the Tampa Bay Times and Tampa Tribune, the shutdown showdown still dominates.
However, if you are a reader of Broward’s Sun-Sentinel, it’s almost as if the shutdown isn’t happening. Not only does the shutdown rank below the new ban on texting while driving, it trails a feature about ‘selfies’ taken by Miami Heat basketball players. All told, five other stories receive bigger play on the front page than the one about the government shutdown.
This is the second time in as many weeks where the front page of the Sun-Sentinel has been way, way off. On September 17th, the day after the deadly shootings at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. — a story which led all of the other major newspapers in the state — the Sun-Sentinel gave the story less prominence than a story titled, “Kids learning in the lap of luxury.”
