"I thought you made the news?"

By Todd Franko

It’s fun to show off our newspaper operation, and Monday night it was a Scouts group from Poland.

I try to make the tour stops age-appropriate. One area we pass through is the hallway of historic front pages.

I wonder two things:

A) Will any of the 9-year-olds know any of these events?

B) Will they look at the headlines as depressingly as one student did a while back. That student looked and remarked “Lots of bad news has happened in Youngstown.”

But I take kids through the hallway regardless, because there might be a moment like Monday night when a kid noticed the moon landing front page. He asked several times “Is that Neil Armstrong? Is that Neil Armstrong?”

Because of a class project, Armstrong has become one of his idols.

That’s how I’d like a tour to go. Then there are the surprising tour moments, like ...

We monitor many news outlets — internet sites, radio stations, TV news, etc. — waiting for news items we do not yet know.

A television newscast was playing at one staffer’s work station. A Scout asked what was on the TV, and the staffer politely shrugged “Oh, just keeping up on the news.”

The Scout replied: “But I thought you made the news?”

(insert silent moment)