Somebody isn't trying

Whoever drew the airliner story over on the WashTimes copy desk is letting the team down. Three and a half columns of hed and deck, and you couldn't manage to work "Obama" in there somewhere?

Everybody else is pulling their weight. The usurper's in three main heds and two decks, along with this opportune cutline on the file photo at the top of the page:

BETWEEN THE LINES: President Obama expresses appreciation to Marines for their service last summer. His administration's proposed budget, however, seems to send a different message.

It's not like a lot of work was going into the lede of the airliner story:

A Chinese government website posted satellite images Wednesday of suspected debris from a missing Malaysian airliner, offering the first potential lead for investigators frustrated by the fruitless and haphazard search effort.

Unless you count all those "potential leads" that the Fair 'n' Balanced Network was reporting on Sunday, that is:

Vietnamese aircraft spotted what they suspected was one of the doors belonging to the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 on Sunday, as troubling questions emerged about how two passengers managed to board the Boeing 777 using stolen passports.

The Ridger keeps an occasional (and highly entertaining) tally of how things look on the different planets covered by the Washington papers. Every now and then, the guiding principle of news judgment on Planet Times is best summed up in the terms of stale comedy: But enough about Obama. Let's talk about you! How do you think Obama's going to destroy the American way of life today?