Throw darts

Today's paper was dull, and the reason is there's no original reporting. Every story the Enquirer wrote for its front page -- "Charter school founder indicted," the eighth-grade car thief who was shot to death, or the death of the owner of a restaurant in Norwood -- results from some event, or something official happening. The only story in the paper today that could be considered original reporting is the result of an Enquirer reporter throwing darts at the telephone book.

The only thing resembling original reporting on the front page in the past week was this story about the lack of mental health insurance coverage -- an OK story, but nothing groundbreaking.

Right now, I can't see the Enquirer producing anything like this story from the Lexington Herald Leader, about the money Sen. Mitch McConnell has raised. Or this story from the Los Angeles Times, about poor monitoring of organ transplants.

Reporters at the Enquirer apparently don't have time to do this kind of work. Read this -- what the editor of the Enquirer told a blogger -- and you might get an idea why. The Enquirer is looking at what's most popular on the web site, and then assigning reporters to write more stories like that. That doesn't leave much time for investigations.