Democrats called it “historic,” Republicans called it “armageddon,” and Vice President Biden was caught whispering to President Obama that, in his estimation, it was “a big f***ing deal.”
But to over a dozen newspapers around the country, the House’s passage of a landmark health bill on Sunday was barely a blip on their radar — and definitely had little news value compared to local Boy Scout awards, brewing debates over seat belts on buses, or the dreaded prospect of snow flurries.
The Wrap looked at 406 newspaper covers from Monday to see what stories were featured on the front page. All but 15 featured a story about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act the day after the bill’s passage.
Here’s the list, along with what stories they DID feature as the top story the next day:
Benton County Daily Herald, Bentonville, Arkansas
Spring
snowstorm.
Northwest Arkansas Times, Fayetteville,
Arkansas
“Overnight accumulation leaves Northwest Arkansas
roads slippery.”
The Morning News, Rogers, Arkansas
Spring
snowstorm.
Stars and Stripes, Washington, D.C.
NCAA
“bracket busters.”
Palm Beach Daily News, Palm Beach,
Florida
“Census Forms Arriving in the Mail.”
Tampa
Bay Times, St. Petersburg, Florida
A story on Hollywood’s
suddenly feeble leading men pegged to Ben Stiller’s “Greenberg”
character.
Commercial-News, Danville, Illinois
Photos
of a maple syrup open house.
Herald-Press, Huntington,
Indiana
School staff reduction.
Peru Tribune,
Peru, Indiana
A local cattle show.
Wabash
Plain Dealer, Wabash, Indiana
Fatal car crash at
intersection kills two.
Cecil Whig, Elkton, Maryland
Fire
destroys home and runaway emu found.
AMnewyork, New York
City
Teen subway mugging.
The High Point
Enterprise, High Point, North Carolina
“Bus seat belts not
likely.”
The Mount Airy News, Mount Airy, North Carolina
“Boy
Scouts learn skills at Merit Badge College.”
Bluffton
Today, Bluffton, South Carolina
Construction of a new middle
school gym.
To be fair, most of these are smaller operations that likely had early deadlines which made covering a late-breaking story difficult.
But if you go to the Newseum website, you’ll notice that many small papers DID manage to get something about the vote on their front pages, most of them by running an AP wire story.
It’s also notable that eight came from Southern states where Congressional members went against the grain in voting against health care.
Now, back to those Boy Scout merit badges …