On Friday, January 22, the Chicago Tribune did not mention that it was the 37th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision nor that for the past 36 years the March for Life has been held on that day on the Mall of Washington as a strong and growing cultural resistence to that dubious Supreme Court decision.

Okay, it was the day of. I decided to give it another day. Meanwhile, I noticed that on page 3 of the Trib on Friday, in a big and colorful news story that took up fully the top third of the page, coverage was given to the rallies being staged by supporters of Tonight Show host Conan O’Brien, protesting NBC’s treatment of the late night comedian. (No, I’m not going to put up links, because it’s ridiculous, relatively speaking…)

I wanted to see what the Chicago Tribune would give to coverage of the largest March for Life in history yesterday, with over 300,000 people amassing on the Mall of Washington and speakers ranging from Protestant, Catholic and Jewish hierarchy, pro-life celebrities and women who regretted their abortions (first hand spokespersons, there). And politicians from the halls and floors of Congress battle over health care reform and whether it will include federal funding for abortion.

So I waited until the day after the March, when all this information would be available. Unless I missed something, (in which case, I apologize), I saw nothing on the massive March for Life and the ‘elephant on the table’ story completely and egregiously overlooked while, on page 3 again, a cutesy little story appeared again about the loyal supporters of Conan O’Brien and their reaction to his last Tonight Show. Fine, for the pop culture.

With all due respect to Mr. O’Brien….

The March for Life story is of much more import. And it was nowhere to be found.

C’mon, Trib editors. You are capable of high standards. You increasingly lose credibility when you cave like this. (I mean, the victory of Scott Brown in Massachusetts on p. 14 the day after….?)

You are capable of better.