That's News??

I've previously posted about my surprise at the repeated news coverage regarding the death of the oldest person alive. Amazingly, it is a story that repeats itself quite regularly, being eclipsed in shock value only by the repeated appearance on the global scene of the youngest person alive.

I was reading the news coverage of the attempted airline bombing in Detroit. Amazingly, the Nigerian government condemned the attempted attack. Also amazing was the recent US condemnation of Iran's use of force against government protestors.

Maybe there should be a rule that such government condemnations are only given media coverage if they represent a complete break from what the expected official government response would be. Examples of stories that would merit coverage would be a US statement condemning Israeli "security measures," Ahmadinejad condemning Hugo Chavez's next weird rant, or Russia condemning NATO's decision not to build a missile defense shield. Somehow most of the "news" doesn't seem newsworthy.