There is no doubt that some people revel in bad news while others thrive on the public attention that messages of gloom bring them.
This summer there simply was no "silly season" in the media. That's not because so much happened but because of religiously-motivated reporting hysteria, Austria's left-liberal weekly Der Falter writes:
"Catastrophes, crises and wars are shown live, and we watch the attacks with bated breath. ... Our religious instinct, a desire for meaning which we all share, longs for clarity and justice, perhaps even punishment. ... It serves us right when the earth quakes - even when it conveniently does it somewhere else.
Catastrophe journalism uses the most modern technology to satisfy atavistic reflexes, because the patterns of thought that lie behind our voracity for doom and gloom news are religious.
How does it go in the Book of Revelations, that apogee of apocalyptic theories? 'You say, "I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing." But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.' Then come the Riders of the Apocalypse live on CNN."
