The Printed Front Page Still Carries Loudest Voice

It was something I never expected to see in my lifetime: an editorial on Page One of The New York Times. There it was, placed carefully on the left side of the page, under a six-column banner headline that corresponds with the news story on the right.

The editorial, headlined "The Gun Epidemic," was direct and convincing, describing the gun epidemic in the United States as describes it as “a moral outrage and a national disgrace that people can legally purchase weapons designed specifically to kill with brutal speed and efficiency.”

The editorial also includes a call to action, suggesting drastically reducing the number of firearms, and “eliminating some large categories of weapons and ammunition.”

This, of course, in the aftermath of recent mass shootings — one in Colorado Springs on Nov. 27, and another in San Bernardino, Calif., on Wednesday in which 14 people were shot and killed and 18 injured.

Why an editorial on Page One of the Times?

The publisher of The Times, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., said the paper was placing an editorial on Page 1 for the first time in many decades “to deliver a strong and visible statement of frustration and anguish about our country’s inability to come to terms with the scourge of guns.”

Not only was I impacted by the forceful editorial, but also by a statement Sulzberger made which reinforces our own ideas about the power of print:

“Even in this digital age, the front page remains an incredibly strong and powerful way to surface issues that demand attention. And, what issue is more important than our nation’s failure to protect its citizens?”

Read the Times' editorial here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/05/opinion/end-the-gun-epidemic-in-america.html

At The NY Daily News

Another New York newspaper, The Daily News, also raised its voice to scream its frustration with gun laws in the United States and the all too frequent mass shootings in the country.

The Daily News collected Twitter posts from Republican politicians offering their prayers to the victims, around the headline “God Isn’t Fixing This."