Newsworthy Bias

I have been using the term “shit happens bias”, but maybe a more accurate (and less salty) moniker is “newsworthy bias” in that the newsworthiness of a shameful act is directly proportional to the decency of the person committing said act.

Even with the simple “man bites dog” example, newsworthiness is lost if the man in question is the same shameless asshole everyone knows has been biting dogs for years. “Man bites dog!? Oh, it’s just Steve again. Nevermind.”

What makes newsworthy bias harmful today is that instead of a single shameless asshole serially biting dogs, we have an entire party of assholes so shameless that any shameless act they commit is no longer considered newsworthy.

And when the only other party still tries to be decent, newsworthy bias invariably helps the shameless party win elections as shameless acts committed by its shameless members end up getting overlooked while even the smallest scent of impropriety from their only competition gets full coverage.