To the editor:

My comment is not meant to demean basketball in any way. After following the disaster in Japan online on Friday night I fully expected to see coverage of this front and center on the Saturday paper. Not only was it not on the front page it was on the last page of the last section — the classifieds — and therefore likely to be missed entirely.

Really? What were the editors thinking? I am well aware that the Journal-World made a decision to place local news on the front page; well and good I suppose for a small, local paper. However, there are times when an event in the world is so enormous and of such consequence that it warrants an exception to the front page’s status quo. The earthquake and tsunami that have caused such obvious and as yet imperceptible devastation to Japan should have been such an exception.

No matter the timing of the Big 12 Conference and the importance to Lawrence, not even Kansas University basketball should have held precedence over the tragedy in Japan. I mean no offense to the team or to fans everywhere, but it was wrong to relegate that story to anywhere but the front page and certainly not the last page — no matter what the policy is.