An event is more likely to be covered and published if it involves people in positions of authority or people who have been newsworthy in the past. Not only are such stories personal and about individuals, but they also satisfy a deep-seated curiosity of the mass audience about how the other half lives. Newsworthy people are leaders in their professions, celebrities of all kinds, and powerful people (world leaders, politicians, and the very rich). It is axiomatic, for example, that Clearance MBT Shoes(http://www.cheapmbtshoes4sale.com) the president is news. So are past presidents--and their families--as news stories about the births of Caroline Kennedy's children and about John Kennedy Jr.'s romances, marriage, and death indicate. Their association with a past president and a current senator (their uncle Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.) make such events newsworthy. Whether the association with a past president and an influential family justified the hour-by-hour coverage of the search for the bodies of John Kennedy Jr., his wife, and his sister-in-law in summer 1999, after the three were killed in a plane crash off Martha's Vineyard, is another question. The relentless coverage of the grieving families prompted some people to call for voluntary agreement among broadcasters and writers that under such circumstances the family should not be approached for interviews, nor should camera crews be stationed outside their houses. The rationale for the hours-on-end coverage of the deaths of pilot John Kennedy Jr. and his passengers is straightforward. At a time of year that usually produces big drops in ratings, coverage of the tragedy drove up viewership. A network representative re-ported, "The three networks devoted much of their airtime Saturday [the day after the plane was reported missing] to coverage of the story. NBC's coverage had a 5.8 rating and 14 shares, ABC's had a 5.3 rating and 13 shares, and CBS had a 3.6 rating and 10 share. That's about double the normal viewership on a summer Saturday at ABC." Similarly, quite trivial happenings involving movie and television stars and well-known athletes receive coverage. When Zsa Zsa Gabor was arrested for slapping a police officer, the arrest and subsequent trial made news. Past celebrities like feminist Gloria Steinem continue to command sporadic treatment fromMBT Shoes On Sale (http://www.topmbtshose.com) news gatherers, as was doubly illustrated when Steinem drew coverage after authoring a book on Marilyn Monroe, also a former celebrity. When a celebrity is charged with a crime, two news norms converge to increase the likelihood of coverage. As a result, the trials of Senator Edward Kennedy's nephew William Kennedy Smith on rape charges and former football star O. J. Simpson on murder charges drew front-page and top-of-the-broadcast treatment. And even the adventures of lesser celebrities such as actor Hugh Grant, who was arrested for soliciting sex from a prostitute, are reported in the back pages. In other words, an event involving people who have been newsworthy in the past is more likely to be reported.
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