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mk  ·  4804 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How Slate’s Jack Shafer Calls Out Bogus Trend Stories
A good one. It's so easy to do, so very hard to verify, and at the same time, it gives relavence to an otherwise tangential story in a news context. -Personally, I'd rather hear more insights into things that weren't trends, but were just of interest.

Last night I was driving and listening to the radio, and the BBC did a piece on koala bear calls. It wasn't relevant to my life in the least, and yet, I appreciate getting some of those stories.

My guess is that the attempt to make all news relevant has to do with confusion between marketing and readership. Relevancy is a must for advertising. It's not a must for content.