The Tampa Bay Times was the only major newspaper in Florida today without a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on its front page.
Scrolling through Kevin Cate’s helpful “Above the Fold Florida” service, it’s easy to see the Tampa Tribune‘s and Orlando Sentinel‘s and Miami Herald’s and Palm Beach Post‘s and all of the other major newspapers’ front page stories honoring Dr. King’s legacy.
But on the front of the Tampa Bay Times, regarded as one of the most progressive newspapers in the South, the story that dominates is about a USF medical student who turns her “passion for medicine and performing into a fundraiser for the student-run free clinic.” There are also stories about Edward Snowden and the debate over in-state tuition rates for undocumented students. Just no MLK.
In fact, in a rather poor choice of timing, on the front page there is the syndication of a New York Times feature about the Florida chapter of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War requesting the state parks department “to place an obelisk to honor Union soldiers (who lost the battle on Feb. 20, 1864) inside the three-acre Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park, the same patch of land that holds three monuments commemorating Confederate soldiers.”
What a way to honor MLK … by relitigating the Civil War!
Tsk, tsk, Times editors.
