Observation on today's online journalism: in my book, Death is not News. Neither is the weather, nor the actions of religious or famous people.

out of a possible 20 "news" items on CNN.com, a full 15 focus on death (usually violent death), crime, weather, religion, or celebrity.

of the remaining 5 items, 2 are related to politics, 1 is related to business / entertainment, 1 is science, and 1 is random.

in other words, about 80% of news is simply death, weather, or fame.

think i'll go back to reading TechMeme and ESPN.