Mexico’s weight problem makes front pages in U.S.

Most media outlets were ready to roll with the 4,000th U.S. death in the Iraq war, which many newspapers Monday spotlighted on front pages while radio and TV news led off with the toll.

However, getting a surprise play on Monday newspaper front pages, as one of the prime three to five stories rating top placement, was a McClatchy Newspapers feature on Mexico becoming the world’s second-fattest nation, behind the U.S., notices Grumpy Editor.

For some reason, it tickled newspaper editors’ decisions for the day after Easter.  And with Congress on spring break, the usual high-flow of Washington news was almost at a standstill.

So with space to fill, editors jumped at the opportunity to front page expanding waistbands south of the border under the byline of Franco Ordonez in Mexico City.  Ordonez also shot a photo (of elementary school students lining up outside a convenience store to buy soft drinks and potato chips) that accompanied the text.

More than 71 percent of Mexican women and 66 percent of Mexican men are overweight, he wrote in one of the 26 paragraphs.

Also available to editors, who sought to fill up additional editorial space, was a bar chart that compared fattest and thinnest industrialized countries.

Among newspapers placing the “second fattest nation” story on front pages were:  San Diego Union-Tribune, Fresno (Calif.) Bee, Honolulu Advertiser, Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star, The Santa Fe (N.M.) New Mexican, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Las Vegas Review-Journal and The Record, Stockton, Calif.