EDITOR’S DESK: Why the media’s elsewhere

       Some interesting events have been taking place on the Westside, but there's a reason why - even more than usual - the only place you'll find them is in this newspaper. You see, the other media have been busy. They've got their very own serial killer. Oh, goody! Robert Browne. No doubt they'll find him a nickname soon enough. Ever wondered what you'd have to do in your lifetime, how hard you'd have to work, how many hours you'd have to volunteer, before you'd rate having a photo of yourself on the front page, day in, day out, in the local daily? Well, now you know. It's none of those. What you need to do is go out and kill 40 or 50 people.
       And the excitement is just beginning. There'll be magazine spreads, documentaries, an autobiography, a movie. Undoubtedly, even now, a secret jostling is going on among media personalities eager for an "exclusive" interview with killer-man himself. As for the victims… To quote from an article in the High Plains Messenger, the local on-line daily, "Yes, we feel sorry for the 48 victims, but for our purposes, they are nameless and faceless and 'uncorroborated.' What we really want is to give Robert Browne a place in history - El Paso County's very own serial killer."
       Let me make a statement right here. Robert Browne, as far as anyone knows, never lived on the Westside nor killed anyone who lives here. Therefore, he is not a story for our little newspaper. But if he had… There would be no photo, no psychological yammering, no award-seeking prose. Only a simple statement of the sad facts. And even that space would be given up grudgingly. There are too many of you out there who are working to make the Westside, the world itself, a decent place. You - not twisted killers - are the ones whose stories deserve to be told.

- K.J.