This international news service reported about El Salvador four or five months before any American news people. Their reporters were the only Americans to ask Iranian students why they were rioting. They consistently asked the brutal questions about topical issues like the Miami riots, housing shortages, low quality in public schools, effects of microelectronics on the workplace — issues that normal news services like AP/UPI cover in People magazine style or not at all.
When I was a typesetter at a community newspaper, we used to fight over who got to do the PNS stories. As a freelance science writer I was treated by PNS with an editorial grace I’ve experienced nowhere else (low pay, though; they’re struggling). Now they’re making their weekly reports (about six stories a week)
