Garcon! The reality check, please

A writer in a national magazine pointed out that from a rational standpoint, most of the things that appear in the press are the high and low points.

Most everything in between gets sawed off because it's not new or different and therefore not really news.

The news is kind of like the thumping you hear from certain car stereos from the outside. Sometimes it's hard to get a picture of what's actually going on inside the vehicle.

The writer suggested newspapers have a reality check box. A place where it says that for every one of the half-dozen or so miscreants appearing in print or on television, there are 8,000-plus people who are working hard, contributing to society and generally being good citizens.

That for every public servant who puts themselves before the served, there are hundreds who are honestly trying to do a good job.

That not every politician is a crook, not every person who is arrested is a criminal, not every member of the press is a shill for this position or that.

It's a pretty complicated position, because it means you have to consider each case on its own merits instead of making sweeping generalizations. You don't get to make an assertion and then use that assertion as proof of your point.

Maybe it's because we live in a small town, but we believe that just as the news doesn't necessarily make people happy, it doesn't always have to make them unhappy, either.