Posted on 11/16/2025 8:43:00 PM PST by DoodleBob
… There are two big takeaways from this analysis. The first one is that the actual distribution of deaths shown on the left is very different from the causes of death that the media talks about.
The second insight is how similar the distribution of coverage is between the three media outlets. While there are some differences (Fox News was a bit more likely to mention homicides, for example, while the NYT did the same for terrorism), these are much smaller than we might expect. While right- and left-wing media might differ in how they cover particular topics, what they choose to write or talk about is similar.
The insight in this comparison, then, is not about differences between partisan media. It’s about the difference between actual causes of death and what the news tells Americans about. Those differences — as we can see in the chart — are huge.
Heart disease and cancer accounted for 56% of deaths among these 15 causes, but together they received just 7% of the media coverage. Other chronic issues, such as strokes, respiratory problems, diabetes, and kidney and liver disease, were also very underrepresented in the news.
Rare — but dramatic — events such as homicides and terrorism received more than half of all media coverage, despite being much smaller causes of death in the US. Terrorism, in particular, is a very rare cause of death, with 16 deaths in 2023.5
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(Excerpt) Read more at ourworldindata.org ...
Heart disease is the most preventable disease. Of course, everyone has to die from something, and if one avoids heart failure, most likely cause of death will be cancer. However avoiding heart disease will yield several extra years of life.
We want news about other people’s behaviors killing us. We don’t want to hear about how we’re killing ourselves.
Surprise, surprise, surprise …
"News" are events that excite interest.
You doing yard work, not news. Several young people getting together and going to an elderly or handicapped person's house and doing their yard work so the city does not fine the old people several thousand dollars for having a unkempt yard, news.
Bill having a heart attack and dying, not news.
Bill having a heart attack and dying while trying to ride a zebra, news.
Bill being shot dead because some little punk wanted the 37 cents in his pocket, big news.
Very well put. ;-)
I’m surprised Covid didn’t get a bigger share.
One cause of death not mentioned at all is medical error.
Rumor has it, it’s actually the second leading cause of death in the US.
This is actually a great subject I don’t think I have ever seen before.
Where is the column for war? Don’t people still die from that? /s
Articles in the news about “Harry” or “Betty” dying at 96 from heart failure isn’t really news. At least it’s not if they were “regular” people.
But studies like this should be kept in mind because people think the news represents all actions and all feelings. Based on the news you would think the world is coming to an end. A quick trip to the local soccer field on Sunday afternoon would show that it is not.
“News” used to be defined not as “Dog bites man”, but rather “Man bites dog.” It is something out of the ordinary. Someone dying of cancer is not “out of the ordinary.”
You die with Covid, not from Covid. Pneumonia or heart disease is how Covid killed you. Luckily, it has quit doing that. You may have Covid now and not know it.
How would the graph change if it were based on expected remaining years of life lost?
If I have Covid now and don’t know it, I’m not going to worry about it.
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