Yorick--
I totally agree with you on the media issue. It is an unfortunate reality in this country (and probably all countries) that negative (evil) stories sell. I have long since stopped watching the local news b/c of it's biased nature to report only negative or 'heart-wrenching' news stories. The media should be there to report on events, tell the truth of the events, and relate both sides of the event.....however, it always turns into a one-sided, opinionated dialogue from the reporter. It comes down to playing to people's emotions. It is a common statistical practice to not accept data that is "tainted" by emotion. If you have say, a call in poll on a hot issue you are only going to get reponses from people who have strong (either for or against) opinions on the issue....you will rarely get a response out of someone that really doesn't care......the media have latched onto this......they try to report every story so that it provokes those with strong emotions towards the issue.....if they just give the facts w/out the opinions they will take that "middle don't care" ground and will not be able to 'sell' their story.
There are other responses I would like to make...but I will make them in a later post
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