Dear Pennies,

Newsflash from wnbc.com! “NEW YORK – The parent company for Kentucky Fried Chicken and Taco Bell was back in damage-control mode Saturday after a NewsChannel 4 camera caught about a dozen rats scampering around a fast food restaurant in New York City’s Greenwich Village.” Mmmmm…. They taste good with E. coli I hear. But honestly, is this really a piece of news of such earth-shattering significance? In NYC, sure it’s a big deal, but is it really worthy of the front page of the Philly Daily News?

I suppose it’s a notch above some of the other news from the past week. The judge at the Anna Nicole burial trial starts crying and makes the news. Britney shaves her head and makes the news – and then puts on a wig and makes the news.  We’ve seen stories about the leaked memo from the British Ministry of Defense saying they hired psychics to find Osama Bin Laden and news reports on a study that says Global Warming keeps children up at night.

Now, I’m sure some people were very concerned when they found out Tony Blair wrote a check to Miss Cleo, but how does this stuff get mainstream coverage? It doesn’t matter if it’s on CNN.com – it’s still just dressed up tabloid news. OK, fine, plenty of people enjoy these stories (and pay for these stories), so they get printed. And maybe these stories are news in some sense of the word (technically, taking a wide definition here). But what do I think when I read these stories? Oh wait, that’s right, I don’t read them. I couldn’t give a damn.

But fear not, Penn, First Call is here to satisfy your urging for sensible news. This week Shira tells us about the first ever artificial heart transplant at HUP. There’s a mayoral election right around the corner in Philly, and Christopher considers what this will mean for the Northeast end of the city.  All the Obama-fawning and Hilary-bashing headed into 2008 is getting a little tiresome already, but Al thinks we have a hope in Senator Chuck Hagel (a Republican who opposes the war).

See, somewhere out there, in the piles of newsprint in Wawa, or deep in the tubes of the Internet, there are indeed legitimate news stories. I’m certainly not ready to give up searching yet. We may have to do some digging and some reading of real newspapers (sorry Philly Daily News), but we can pull it off.  Just keep checking back here for your news – we’ll keep you posted on what really matters.

Tim Potens

Editor