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Difficult times traditionally lead to escapism.  Some unhappy readers are accusing the Sun-Sentinel, a Florida newspaper of just that.  Last Friday the Sun published a full spread about the latest and greatest in slot machines in their entertainment magazine.  They received a lot of criticism for this as the story came across more like an advertisement for slot machines than anything else.  The subheading for “Slot of Fun” was “Stereo sound, 3-D graphics, LED lighting ... today's machines will make your head spin.”

Many people found the story on slot machines inappropriate.  Some thought that such a blatant support of a gambling device like slot machines in the midst of an economic depression to be in poor taste.   

In addition, while there was an article about slot machines many people noticed that the paper chose not to cover the story of Abraham Biggs, the Pembroke Pines teenager the overdosed on webcam.  Metro Editor Dana Bankers and her supervisor Fred Ward decided not to publish the story for fear of it encouraging copycats.

Readers found this policy to be misguided and a poor reason not to publish a story.  It has been likened to avoiding the Mumbai story for fear of copycat terrorist strikes.  Also, the paper’s policy toward teens seems a little hazy.  The paper will not publish a story about a teen suicide but it will release an article about the joy of slot machines with very familiar monopoly art drawing in the attention of young people.

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