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It's the news, it's supposed to report on the uncommon.... It was commonly understood that news represents the unusual, not the usual.

News organizations could report on people dying of extremely rare diseases and these are rarely reported on compared to terrorism/homicide.

Rarity is not the best predictor of whether a news organization will cover something. "Likelihood of engagement/rage/shock/fear/anxiety" is the best predictor of story coverage, although this overlaps well with "uncommon happening."

There's absolutely nothing special about news organizations (beyond engaging in 1st amendment activity regularly): they want to make money, they're businesses.

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