Steve Vogel

As the national debate roils on about the proposed public option for health care and as newspapers face declining fortunes, one might think major newspaper editors would jump at the chance to front-page a story of government-run health care negligence.

Yet today's Washington Post buried such a story -- "Negligence Suits Likely Over VA Procedures: 3 Hospitals Used Dirty Equipment" -- on page 13 of its 16-page A-section, although the blunder in question has put some 11,000 military veterans at needless risk of infection and an official investigation of the blunder concluded there were "fundamental defects" in veterans' medical care:

Army veteran Juan Rivera reported to the veterans hospital in Miami for a routine colonoscopy in May 2008. Almost a year later, the 55-year-old father of two learned that the Department of Veterans Affairs had not properly sterilized the equipment used for the procedure.

I found a rarity in Iraq media coverage in the August 2 Washington Post: a positive story on U.S. troops in Iraq. And it was on page 11. Not A-11 or B-11 but T-11, or the 11th page of my "Prince George's Extra," a special tabloid section that comes with Thursday editions of the Washington Post.

Home delivery subscribers get the local extra section tailored to their respective county or city of residence. Glancing over the front page of the Extra section, I spotted this teaser headline: "Military Matters. Puppets are helping soldiers connect with children in Iraq."

I flipped to page 11 and sure enough found a positive "Military Matters" story by reporter Steve Vogel. Unfortunately, I'll have to wait two weeks to see if the next one is similarly upbeat.