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ya know, I was right there with everyone else when they said we were covering Paris Hilton / Britney Spears / Bennifer / Anna Nicole / etc too much. But this one's actually important. A LOT of bridges (and other pieces of infrastructure) in the country are in very bad shape because the money hasn't been spent to keep them up.
I think it's very important that the public understand this, especially when, as happened in the twin cities, billions of government dollars are going toward building a new stadium instead of repairing the roads.
I think it's very sad that it took a catastrophic bridge failure for this story to be broken. The study that said so many bridges were below minimum standards has been out for a long time - - I can personally tell you that I *know* 3 out of the 4 networks had this information long before the bridge collapse, and I can tell you this because I and a few friends at the other networks pitched this story like crazy when the study came out around 2 years ago, and no one bit. It wasn't sexy enough. It wasn't topical (translation: Once a bridge collapses then we'll finally get off our collective asses and do it).
I think this is one of the more important issue stories out there. It says "Hey, wake the hell up America, your government is not doing it's job, it's not keeping our country's infrastructure maintained. It's not, in short, keeping us safe. THIS is the story that should be trumpeted to all the corners of the country, and frankly I'm relieved to see that, at least for now, that's happening.
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