Young lives are more newsworthy than older ones

Or, maybe certain breeds of dogs are more newsworthy. 

This week, the state of Texas saw two dog fatalities.  I want to note here, that dog fatalities are extremely rare -- and happen about 1/3 as often in the US as someone dying from being struck by lightning.  So two happening in the same state, in the same week, is incredibly rare.

Anyway, the first incident involved three dogs, with the one being blamed for the fatality being a Catahoula Leopard Dog/American Bulldog mix.  This dog allegedly attacked and killed a 50 year old woman in her back yard.  The fatality was covered by six news sources in the state of Texas: KVUE TV, the Houston Chronicle, KHOU TV, The Galveston Daily News, KFOR TV and WOAI-TV.  I'll also note that one of the news sources only covered the story as a pit bull attack, and the Galveston News spent 2 days calling it a pit bull attack before finally running a correction.

Meanwhile, the story about the little girl being attacked by a pit bull, has already been covered by 19 different news sources, including almost every TV Outlet in the state of Texas, the Dallas Morning News, the Washington Times, KSOW (Oklahoma TV) and the United Press International.

I wonder why one story was picked up by 6 news sources, and the other by more than 3 times that number?

Comments

[Marjorie Darby]

Yes, young lives are considered more important, but only if the attacking dog is a 'pit bull'.

If the attacking dog is not a 'pit bull', it won't matter how cute or sympathetic you are, as a victim. Virtually no one will care, especially the media.

I remember one outspoken resident of a city that passed a 'pit bull' ban after one...yes one...'pit bull' (out of the city's 10 or so), attacked a cat. This particular woman was outraged that the city acted so swiftly and so restrictively, when her own cat had been killed by a Cocker Spaniel not long before, and no one cared. Officials certainly didn't move to ban all Cocker Spaniels, based on that one attack, or even the dozens of bites attributed to Cockers.

I like E.B. White, for the quotation:

"Prejudice is a great time-saver -- you can form opinions without having to get the facts."