On April 1st, the News-Gazette printed an article from the AP out of Washington which stated, "the Government Accountability Office found that procurement costs came in 26 percent above original estimates for 72 major weapons programs in 2007," blaming "inefficient Pentagon management" and "the use of contractors and other outside personnel" (i.e., outsourcing).

If you read the News-Gazette at all, though, you probably missed this article because it was buried on the back page of Section B in a small space in the sidebar.

I wrote a letter to the editor saying that this is important enough information to be front page news, but so far they have refused to print it.

If the Dept. of Health & Human Services, the Dept. of Children & Family Services or any other government benefits program were found to have discrepancies of this magnitude, I have no doubt that it would be splashed on the front page with conservatives screaming about needing to get rid of Big Government because they are "wasting our tax dollars." Apparently, the Pentagon is exempt from this type of criticism. For all of the right wing's talk about government inefficiency, the Pentagon should be the epitome of efficiency. This article states otherwise.

Citizens should not have to scour the back of Section B with a magnifying glass to find out this type of information. But this is the state of our media today.

Nancy Dietrich-Rybicki
Urbana, IL