Some of these stretch way beyond a given year

Michelle Malkin pointed me over to this from her site. It is WorldNetDaily's list of the top ten underreported stories of the past year.

As the number one underreported story, WND lists "America's vulnerability to nuclear terrorism." Well, who knows? What is really being done about it would be so highly classified that neither reporters nor general public types have the goods needed to make an assessment and render criticism. This is one of the chief frustrations of the "war on terrorism." You can't exactly tell the enemy what you're up to, which precludes telling virtually anyone else.

Likewise, when someone snouts off about not enough being done, those who do the doing can't show up with the details of what's being done. It's all a shadow war, and the only thing I know about it is that moving toward four years after 9/11 the much expected other shoe has not yet been dropped.

Perhaps a far more important story, nowhere on WND's list, is the growing threat of an avian (bird) flu epidemic. It is a story that has been getting reported, but even today it sounds like the real potential of a global outbreak and its impact remains decidedly underreported.

The number two underreported story, says WND, was Sandy Berger's pilfering of classified documents related to terrorism. Well, it was reported, and then it went cold because no one who knows anything about it is talking. But to rank that right after "vulnerability to nuclear terrorism" is a bit of a reach.

The other eight stories are interesting. I agree that the Swift Boat Vets did not get a proper hearing from the media (listed as number four). But then they did take their case against John Kerry directly to the public via their devastating television ads and John O'Neill's book, Unfit for Command. They made known what they wanted to make known about John Kerry's war heroism, and it pretty much made John Kerry look like more of a fool, not presidential material.

America's out of control judiciary (number five) and uncontrolled illegal immigration (number six) are both pretty much underreported stories of the last quarter century, but I suppose that there is no harm in renewing their underreported status on a yearly basis.

Bottom line: WND's list should make you think about the relative importance of hearing the latest details about the Michael Jackson case as opposed to paying attention to the actual sea changes of and mortal threats to the Republic. "Keep a cold eye on things" would be the lesson.

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