The "Dog Doesn't Bite Man" Story of the Week

A plane took off from La Guardia yesterday with 155 passengers aboard. A few moments later, after passing through a flock of Canadian Geese disabling both engines, the pilot made a safe water landing (no mean feat by any stretch of the imagination) in the Hudson River ... some minor injuries among the passengers, some hypothermia ... but everyone survived. End of story!

The above paragraph describes the entire incident in as much detail as 99.9999999% of the population of the planet needs.

Since the plane went down yesterday, there has been virtually NOTHING ELSE on the news! Hasn't ANYTHING ELSE happened on the planet since yesterday afternoon?!?!?! Slow news day? Week? Month? I could almost (but not quite) understand it if there were fireballs, mayhem, blood and gore. That would be sensationalism! But this twenty four hour analysis of what didn't happen is beyond me!

I checked Google. Here are a few headlines that caught my attention - things that are happening right now that might constitute actual news:

• Merkel, Putin Seek to Resolve Gas Dispute in Talks
• Waterboarding Is Torture, Holder Tells Senators
• Saudi FM urges to effectively implement UN resolution on Gaza crisis
• Who will succeed N Korea's Kim Jong-il?
• Paper Details Sites on Mars With Plumes of Methane
• Sony Ericsson Posts Loss, Predicts Gloomy 2009
• Appeals court backs warrantless wiretaps

Fool that I am, I believe each and every one of those headlines has implications for far more people than a plane crash in which no one was hurt.

Headline! Headline! Dog doesn't bite man! Read all about it!

Talk about empty calories!