I’m really sick of the recurring stories about Asian carp. Reporters and editors preach so much about publishing stories that matter to/affect their readers, but the Asian carp is not one of them. If it did, reporters would explain why higher in the story.
Take this story from The Capital Times, titled “Fears become reality as invasive Asian carp detected in two Wisconsin Rivers.” Who is fearing the Asian carp? Not the vast majority of readers, I suspect.
In fact, it isn’t until the seventh paragraph that the writer says “… carp destroy and disturb the natural habitat of waterways because of their ability to eat a significant amount of plankton daily.”
At this point, the writer fails to explain how destroyed waterways directly impact the reader. As it stands, the article just sounds like another whiny environmental piece, and most people nowadays are immune to those types of stories, it seems.
Note: I don’t mean to single-out The Capital Times. Other newspapers, such as the Wisconsin State Journal and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, are guilty as well.