Petrelis Files

April Fool's!

New York City has two gay newspapers, Gay City News and the NY Blade, but neither one has yet to report on the decline in HIV stats from the NYC health department.

I suspect the gay papers have one thing in common with the New York Times on the issue of HIV stats: If the health department isn't handing the stats to the press on a silver platter, the papers won't report on the quarterly HIV surveillance reports.

So far only a single New York media outlet, the Gotham Gazette, in a correction from the editor, has seen fit to inform people that the HIV numbers for the city are decreasing. And just two blogs, Andrew Sullivan's and mine, have called attention to the NYC HIV stats.

Maybe the problem for the Times, Gay City News and the NY Blade is they just don't know how to cover good news about HIV when it occurs. I would think New York newspapers would jump at the chance to write about HIV declines, maybe get quotes from HIV prevention groups claiming their programs and messages are effective and working, but that is not the case.

I find it ironic that Gay City News every week prints the latest stats about dead and wounded American soldiers in Iraq, but the paper and its reporters seems apathetic about HIV stats in their own backyard. (Source: http://gaycitynews.com/gcn_413/confirmeddead.html )

In case the New York rags want to get over their silence about the current falling HIV stats in NYC, the reporters and editors don't have to leave their offices to locate the stats, because they're available with the click of the mouse at: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/dires/hivepi.html .

I hope these three important publications quickly get around to reporting on the falling NYC HIV stats.