"To tell the truth, I don't think it's as bad as they tell us. I swear if the news was really reflective on American society, if it was as bad as they make us perceive it to be, we'd see shootouts every hour in every city. The murder rate in this country has been falling since 1980."

Yes, I worked as a reporter for 15 years. Not everybody in the media is out to create hype. But in a way, it's the nature of the business. Something has to be "unuaual" or "shocking" to a degree to make the news. So -- to really over-simplify it -- "Jack shot Joe" is going to make the papers, whereas, "The other 500,000 people in town went about their business and didn't hurt anybody", will not make the news.