Media is adept at turning disaster mill

Irrespective of the nature of the disaster, media has templates to wring the most coverage from them, writes Jack Shafer

Natural disasters, airline crashes — and yes, terrorist bombs — undercut the normalcy of everyday life by bringing death’s whammy to an unexpected place at an unforeseen time.

In the hours and days following such catastrophes, journalists work to restore normalcy to the panicked population by explaining how and why the bad thing happened and how to prevent it from happening again.