"If it bleeds, it leads," a truism of newspaper journalism is not entirely faulty guidance but one can imagine instances where even grisly murders might eventually play second fiddle to "dog bites man" features should the readership become so inured to major crime they come to regard it as just a part of daily life. Somewhat farfetched I grant, until the day without the murder is newsworthy.
Who would be fascinated if the same story ran--headlines, graphics, and photos--day after day despite such a magical record and despite the overwhelming significance of its occurrence morning after morning? Opening the news with anything less would betray the highest ideals of news coverage.
"NUCLEAR NATIONS AVOIDED WORLD'S DESTRUCTION ANOTHER DAY
"Somehow the most powerful, aggressive, and arrogant leaders of the nuclear gangs managed once again to not attack each other through missteps, failing computer chips, radars tracking flocks of geese, lightning strikes, and damn people just pushing the wrong buttons for another twenty four hours.
"Had we been able to tell you this yesterday you could have slept easier, gone fishing with your children, built your spouse the potting shed you've been promising all these years, or read at least one of the shorter texts in your holy scriptures without subconscious distraction.
"No, we did't tell you. We couldn't be sure. Stranger things happen regularly. But parlaying chances in a thicket of sociopathic heads of state and complex systems lacking sufficient redundancies to guarantee you a single second of continued existence is beyond our pay grade."
Sooner or later, once the immensity of the message wears off or people become numb from thinking on their fragile mortality, the story (still immense, still very much there) falls below the fold, gets pushed to the second page, finally to the spot above the crosswords among the comics, and then to . . .nothing. That's where we are today.
One might easily attribute it to some conspiracy theory--a cabal of military, industrial, secret government agencies working behind the scenes to ensure they receive adequate cover and funds to expand and renew weapons of mass destruction without so much as a single plebiscite from us for support. Or, maybe it's just our collective unconscious jamming fears of horrendous catastrophes back into our mental basements, behind the stack of baby buggies, broken toys, and half-used paint cans. Could be, editors are not so different from us plebes; they have fears and one of them is pissing off their readers.
As we hinted earlier the day may come when the biggest news will happen. But that day no one will be printing much less reading the news.
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