Arlington Sun Gazette: Profile in Ignorance

Once again, I open up the Arlington Sun Gazette – only to regret it moments later. The Sun Gazette is a local paper, mailed free of charge to households across Arlington. And while the easy line is that it is worth exactly what I paid for it, I am wondering if it has come time to start charging them for the privilege of sending it to me. Almost every time I read the editorials, I am brought to wonder – what in the hell did Arlington ever do to deserve this tripe? The latest, regarding the recently passed Marshall-Newman Amendment (prohibiting the benefits of marriage as against all unmarried couples):

For one thing, we wouldn’t expect the Virginia Supreme Court to do anything but uphold the constitutional amendment. And, by challenging it, gay-rights activists would come off looking as poor losers. They also would do exactly what proponents of this amendment predicted: Turn to the courts when public opinion has swung the other way.

Our rather sensible suggestion: Forget about the amendment, and either wait for public opinion to shift (it will), or, if that’s too much of a long-term commitment to handle, move someplace else.

That’s right. Ignorant bigotry has just been enshrined in the state constitution, but hey, if you want to actually do something about it, you’re just a sore loser. Suck it up or move.

What sort of troglodyte is in charge of this page? Does American Community Newspapers, owner of the Sun Gazette, confiscate the moral compasses of its editorial writers on their first day of work? And what in the world makes them think that this editorial voice is of any interest to Arlington – which, by their own reporting, was surpassed only by Charlottesville in voting against that abomination of an amendment? To have read their editorial page over the past year was a journey through the looking glass, replete with red is blue and up is down editorials. The Sun Gazette editorial page, at times, is not only out of step with Arlington, but reality.

To be fair, the failures of the Sun Gazette are generally limited to the editorial and Political Notes page – it appears to do a decent job of covering the usual community paper beats – school activities, local sports, and zoning disputes. See that, Sun Gazette? Deceny and fairness – something your editorial page has been lacking for years. Arlington deserves better.