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What the news media really favors is news that will bring in the most readers, listeners, and viewers. As it turns out, bad news seems to do that better than good news. Many were upset by the media over-reporting of the antics of Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and other celebrity airheads. The media simply made a decision that this is what people wanted to see.

The Good News in the World

Here is the good news about the bad news. What the news media presents is what is unusual, what is urgent, what is of interest (or perceived to be of interest) to their customers. Deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan make the news even though they are an everyday and by now quite common experience. But it is news because people want to know what is happening. Natural disasters make the news as well as serious accidents. They are unusual and therefore newsworthy. Remember the old saying? When a dog bites a man, that's not news, but when a man bites a dog, that's news.

All of the bad news we are subjected to tells us that it is the bad things that are most unusual in the world. In other words, the world is actually a better place than we think it is. There are wonderful things happening in the world every day and they never make the news because they are commonplace. You will not find a front-page story about two people falling in love because tens of thousands of people fall in love every day. You will not get headlines about the birth of a loved baby because loved babies are being born every minute.

The news is not negative because the world is in a big mess (although the world is in a big mess). The news is negative because the positive things are so common as to not be newsworthy. If we were to apply this idea to our personal lives, I can demonstrate that your life is better than you think it is.

Good News in Your Life

Just as the news tends to focus on the bad things that are happening because they are unusual, so do you tend to focus on what is wrong with your life because that is what gets your attention. We focus on the squeaky wheel in our life, whether it is a physical problem, a relationship issue, a financial problem, or something else. Because we focus on these things, it can appear to us that our life isn't going too well. But if we were to take the time to focus on what is right in our life, what is good and positive, we would suddenly realize that our life isn't as bad as we thought.

Good, Bad, or Just Slanted?

The real problem with the mainstream media is not so much the good

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