Posted on 08/03/2007 5:47:17 PM PDT by Congressman Billybob
There is a saying in the broadcast media, “If it bleeds, it leads.” That supposedly explains the ghoulish nature of TV news especially. But the wall-to-wall, anchors on the scene, coverage of the Minneapolis bridge collapse, belies that theory. Five people are known dead, eight are missing. If all the missing are dead, that means 13 people have died in Minnesota.
Let’s make some quick comparisons. The Iraq War in five years is 310 times that total. But the number of Americans killed by illegal aliens here in the US, is even more than that. That is a relatively small number compared to several other, well-known events. D-Day, the invasion of France, saw 200 times that number in the first day, 5,530 times that for the whole Battle of Normandy. The taking of Iwo Jima in four days cost 450 times that number.
Go back to the bloodiest battle of the bloodiest war that America ever fought. The Battle of Antietam cost 303 times that number in a single day. Still, that was a picker compared to the most common form of premature death in the US, automobile accidents. That form of death cost about 3,100 times that number of deaths every year, year after year.
So, let’s make an accurate and important amendment in the TV news bromide: If it bleeds, it leads, provided there’s something obvious to point a camera at, and that the deaths serve an attack-the-government prejudice. There, glad I could be helpful.
When I was in a graduate program on public policy at American University, I had the privilege of meeting and talking with one of the giants of Political Science, the late, great Aaron Wildavsky. His primary interests were “comparative risk” and “marginal cost.” Both concepts are extremely important. Both apply to policy judgments in war and peace.
Comparative risk means simply, how does this human activity compare to all other major ones in risk of death? What is the most risky government activity in the US? It is serving as a local police officer. What is the most risky private activity? It is being a jockey in saddle horse races. Compared to these two, and compared to the top 100 activities, riding across a bridge, having it fail, drop you into a river and kill you, doesn’t even rate an asterisk on the chart.
Every time I discuss such subjects, I have to add this caveat. Every premature death of a single American is a tragedy for that person’s family. But when governments are setting public policy, there is no way to eliminate all such deaths. Policy should be set to save many lives, not to save one life at the expense of losing thousands of other lives.
And that brings us to marginal costs. Every year, a very small number of children die from allergies to peanuts and related products. Should peanut butter therefore be barred from every school lunch room in the nation? Or, should health officials provide best available information to the parents of such children, so it becomes their responsibility (and as they get older, the children themselves) to keep them safe?
While we are on that subject, one of the leading causes of accidental death for children but less than auto accidents, is drowning – not in swimming pools (rare) – but in buckets and bathtubs. There is no way to eliminate buckets and bathtubs, but a little more education of parents on how quickly toddlers can get themselves into serious trouble, could save thousands of lives. “I was only out of the room for a minute,” is frequently said at the scene of an accidental death of a child.
Competent public officials should always pay attention, as Professor Wildavsky so long urged, to the relative risks in various areas of public and private actions. Once leaders know the risks, they should spend larger amounts of scarce public dollars on activities where the lives saved per dollar spent are the greatest.
The problem, of course, is that public knowledge is driven by a sensationalist broadcast media. Therefore, voters who choose public officials are clueless about relative risk and marginal cost. That makes it very difficult for competent public officials to get elected, and reelected. Instead, voters who have been deceived by the media tend to support knee-jerk politicians who thoughtlessly follow the disaster du jour, just like TV news does.
What’s the result? More Americans will die of preventable costs. Isn’t that too high a cost to pay for sloppy journalism?
- 30 -
About the Author: John Armor practiced in the US Supreme Court for 33 years. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu He lives in the 11th District of North Carolina.
- 30 -
Journalism is by its nature negative, superficial, and unrepresentative. "If it bleeds, it leads" illustrates journalism's negativity. "'Man Bites Dog' not 'Dog Bites Man'" illustrates that journalism is unrepresentative of the big picture of the society it reports on. And "There's nothing more worthless than yesterday's newspaper" - a.k.a., "Always meet your deadline," a.k.a. "The show must go on" - illustrates journalism's superficiality.Fox News Channel is IMHO just as superficial as any other news outlet, and just as unrepresentative. It is slightly less negative toward the people who get things done in America, tho, and that is enough to get it labeled "conservative."
I put "conservative" in scare quotes not only because FNC is not as "conservative" as FReepers but because "conservative" is used by journalism as a negative label for anyone not sufficiently enthusiastic about criticism and second guessing of the leaders of the police, the military, and business who get things done for America. As the environmental movement illustrates, America's so-called "conservatives" are far more enthusiastic about progress than are America's so-called "progressives" - and we also are far more enthusiastic about liberty than are America's so-called "liberals."
Mencken would say — Mencken did say — that “nobody ever went broke by underestimating the taste of the American people.”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A more accurate statement would be: “No one ever went broke by underestimating the taste of Americans who are regular consumers of main stream media products”. There has always been a significant subset of our countrymen who were not customers of these sources, which probably accounts for most of the residual freedoms we continue to enjoy.
The news are now produced as entertainment shows interested in ratings instead of just plain informative spots. While it appeals to the sheeple, it also dehumanizes tragedies. This dehumanization re-enforces our perception that life is cheap. Sad.
I think they prefer "reactionary". Or "Nazies", who were in fact progressive socialists.
The taking of Iwo Jima required more than 4 days—the capture of Mount Suribachi took place four days after the invasion began, but the entire island wasn’t under US control until about a month later.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.