If a distant rogue country possessed weapons of mass destruction that were possibly poised to attack us, wouldn't that merit media attention?
Seattle and Vancouver are the only major population centers in North America that are reachable by North Korea's longest-range missles. This threat unites Cascadia and provides a scary reminder of how our concerns differ from those of eastern power centers like New York, Washington or Toronto.
But you'd hardly know it living here and following the local media.
North Korea said last week that it had a weapon and planned a missle test. Yet the major Puget Sound and Vancouver newspapers haven't devoted front-page real estate to the issue. It's nowhere on local TV and radio, even as media report daily on the carnage in Iraq and paranoia over terrorism continues. In Seattle, a neighborhood library was evacuated Tuesday when a librarian reported a "white substance" in the book drop. An Seattle alternative paper even pokes fun at the Korean threat on its blog.