Ignore the news? That sounds pretty stupid, doesn’t it? After all, the news is what’s happening and important, right?
Not exactly.
The news is what’s happening, important, and unusual. Dog bites man isn’t news; man bites dog is. The problem is, if you want to fix the world, you have to tackle the ordinary, not the exceptional. You have to deal with the issues screwing things up day after day after day, all over the world, the things too common-place to make the news. So crafting policy to the news is probably the worst thing we can do.
And yet we do it so often, because there it is. Somebody better think about that.
Here’s the link to an excellent essay on this very thing, and the recent “underwear bomber” terror attack. Get the connection?
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About the Author: The major landmarks in Frank's historical interests range from ancient Persia through the Crimean War, World War II, and the modern U.S. Armed Forces, with a lot of stops in between. Frank is fascinated by the unusual, the overlooked, and the surprising. He is the New York Times number one best-selling author of the Desert Shield Fact Book (1991) and he is currently writing an historical novel on Alexander's conquest of Persia – from the Persian point of view.
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