Two Deaths, Two Types of Reporting

Locally we have suffered the deaths of two young men very close together, but what is telling is the media coverage of those deaths.

One a young Marine killed in Afghanistan the other a high school athlete killed in a senseless act of domestic violence.

Guess which one is getting more coverage.

The Marine was PFC Jason Estopinal who was part of the recent offensive going on in Marjah, Afghanistan. He was performing duties clearing the IED's in and around the town when he was killed by one of them. I believe ABC has some video footage of the incident, although I can not be sure that this is the same incident which claimed the young man's life.



Here is a local video report on the Marine.

PFC Estopinal's death brings home the fact that we are still engaged in a very deadly war in Afghanistan, and because it no longer suits the media's purposes to report on it, or maybe they have just tired of it, it doesn't make it any less real for the families of those who are serving.

The death of the other young man is equally tragic but I do get put out by the amount of ink devoted to the death of a high school athlete versus that of our fighting men and women. The reporting of the Marine amounts to little more then an obituary while the athlete's entire life and social network and everything he has done since being potty trained is reported on.