>>Off the top of my head, a brief list: story of the Cuban kid (Elian?) who was to be returned to his father; the runaway bride herself, Michael Jackson in court, Terry Schiavo case, Peterson murder, the girl missing on a vacation in some French colony, and now this. They all took a lot of space in the news for weeks, while the more important things went un(der)reported.
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>You are debating against human nature. You seem to be an exception, and good for you, but most people are more interested in reading about people than public policy.

That's that they want you to believe. That's how your taste has been cultivated over the last couple of centuries. That's how serious newspapers have been gradually pushed out of business, and those who understood that their job is not to publish the news, but to sell ad space have seized the field.

And serious reporting is also about people - what do you think how much ad spaces would a story about late Ken Lay, up close and personal, sell? Or about bigwigs in BP or Chevron? Or about Boeing/Lockheed vs Airbus salesmen (ms Rice included)? With all the juicy details, huh?

But you won't read about that - too dangerous for the publisher('s revenues) and why would they do that anyway, when the reading public was successfully convinced that they like 24/7 man-bite-dog more?