Crime in the night news versus reality

The internet surfer posted thusly:

“I used to split my time between Birmingham and Atlanta and I felt much safer in Birmingham than Atlanta. There are absolutly (SP) more murders and violent crimes in Atlanta, you hear about it on the news daily. “

The discussion had been about “The 10 most dangerous cities in America“,  an article based on the FBI Uniform Crime Report.

The reality of that reader is based on the “news daily”.  In our household the local daily TV news is referred to as the “Who Killed Who Show” aka “The Five O’clock News”.

Weather and sports aside, The Five O’clock News should retitle itself as the “Police Report“.   It is predominated by murder, rape, molestation and other crimes easily obtained from the police department.

Its cheap to station a person at the police department and fill air time with a talking head telling you what is happening in the police department.  “If it bleeds, it leads” is their motto.

TV news fails to put their police reports in perspective.  If a ball player hits a homerun the news might tell us his average hitting score.  But TV news will never tell us our average safety rating or comparison with other cities or other hazards.

How many traffic deaths occurred in the county last month versus child kidnappings or murders?  What is more dangerous, letting your child walk to school or driving them to school?  What are your statistical chances of having a life threatening accident?

You can’t get that information from TV news.  TV news is “dumb” news.  It is meaningless and without perspective.
And yet, many people make decisions on what they watch on TV news.

How do you base your decisions?