Buried in the Sunday Oregonian

From yesterday's Oregonian, the headline reads: "Visitors see progress at Guantanamo"

Progress has been made to improve conditions and protect detainees' rights at the U.S. prison for suspected terrorists, House Republicans and Democrats, including one who has advocated closing the facility, said Saturday.

Gee, a news story that says good things about Gitmo? Yeah, we ran the abuse stories on Page A1, but we can't put that good story on the front page, right?

Nope. Page A19. It's the front page of a 4-page A section behind the main section, so it might get more viewing than if it were page A17 at the end of the main section, but still.

So what's on the front page?

• Congress' efforts in the fight against methamphetamines
• A 10-year-old boy who accidentally shot his sister to death in 1996, and how he's grown up to be a nice Mormon boy
• Multnomah County's financial inability (unwillingness?) to keep non-violent criminals behind bars, and a state law that might help them
• And Billy Graham's last U.S. crusade.

What was ahead of Gitmo in the A section?

• A2: The death of an Iowa National Guard soldier
• A4: A new Pentagon database to track potential recruits
• A6: Canada's decision not to ban U.S. beef despite a new mad cow case
• A7: The NAACP's new president
• A10: The nuclear future of Iran under a new president
• A12: More military deaths, and the status of armored Humvees

All interesting. Were any deserving of placement ahead of a story deflating the relentless accusations of abuse? I would argue that only the Iran story might merit higher placement. I can see the meth story on the front page, as it's a huge issue in this area.

But there's no bias against the military. Really. Yeah, we ran three stories critical of the military on Pages 2 and 12, and buried the Gitmo story on 19, but there's no bias.