All I Really Need to Know I Learned in High School Journalism
By Jim Dallas
Today's Philadelphia Inquirier (via Atrios):
Biggest story - three people killed in Bucks County accident.
Smallest story - five young people killed in Iraq.
The proximity rule strikes again!
(Granted, both are tragedies, but teens dying in car accidents is a story almost as old as soldiers dying in wars -- it's all about proximity. The classical definition of this rule is something to the effect of "a cat meowing at city hall is bigger news than all the foreign wars ever fought." Someone correct me if I'm getting the quote wrong.)
P.S. In a bolder statement of media criticism, Ezra over at TAPPED mentions Rick Perlstein's unpublished (but not unwept) op-ed on how the media blew Katrina coverage.
Posted by Jim Dallas at October 1, 2005 10:18 AM
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