ibenez wrote:
] Although, large portions of the media try to jump on ANY story
] that makes America and especially our soldiers look bad.

"News" organizations are competing for eyeballs, and not just amongst themselves. They are up against the same things as broadcast television and print media.

They are driven by any story that will keep people tuned in. The details and their import are almost irrelevant, as should be clear from their tendency to run news ticker blurbs about Michael Jackson and Paris Hilton during an intense, live-from-the-scene report about a deadly suicide bombing.

At the same time, it is a constant struggle to optimize the coverage among competing objects to bring in new viewers/readers, stroke the hobbyhorses of the junkies, and minimize churn. This is a challenge because the things that keep the hard core committed are often exactly the things that repel the much larger audience of recreational viewers.

RE: The Lament of David Brooks