See If You Can Spot the Favorite Child on the Front Page this Morning

Source: Crystal River: 2021 a year in review by Buster Thompson; Citrus County Chronicle 1/1/21

Have you seen that AT&T commercial where their spokeswoman Lily hands kids lollypops and the little girl gets a smaller one than her brother then gets upset at the injustice of it all? That girl's face is me when I read the Chronicle front page this morning only to discover a multi-page feature story about all Crystal River accomplished in 2021.

As a former Crystal River resident and campaign manager of Mayor Joe Meek, I love these stories that shamelessly do the city's PR for them, but even I can recognize the absurdity of a community newspaper focusing so much attention on an area that only 2.2% of the county population calls home.

This absurdity is only amplified when you consider the Chronicle gave the county an overall grade of 1.80 GPA in an unsigned editorial tucked away in the middle of the paper while Crystal River gets a can-do-no-wrong piece on the front page of first of the year edition.

Every parent has a favorite child but most try at least a little harder to hide who it is.