History Main / WorstNewsJudgmentEver

* [[http://failblog.org/2010/02/09/news-fail-4/ This FailBlog entry]] doubles as this trope.

* On September 16, 2013, people in the Denver metro area wanting to know about the massacre of twelve civilians in Washington DC's Navy Yard made sure to avoid ABC 7, as they were leading with ''ad nauseum'' coverage of flooding over the previous week that had inundated many parts of the Front Range.

* Depending on how you view it, the Denver ABC affiliate covering the September 2013 floods that hit the Front Range and drowned eight people treating that as a higher priority story than the September 16 massacre of 12 people at Washington's Navy Yard.

* Many small-town newspapers -- in particular mom-and-pop run weeklies, with circulation in rural communities and where the owners and/or news staff have little to no actual journalism training or news sense -- will tend to emphasize "chicken dinner" stories, or stories focusing on social events, personality features or fluff (e.g., ancedotes about nothing in general) above more pressing, actual news. Much like the fictional example given in the lead of this article, the headlines of such stories will run front page above the fold, with oversized photographs and large-font headlines emblazoned across the page (e.g., "Church supper draws 300 people"), while actual news, such as of a fire, crime or controversial issues affecting local government/schools may be buried deep in the paper or completely ignored. While some editors will say this is because the event in question may be several days old and in their mind covered sufficiently by competing media (i.e., TV and daily newspapers in the paper's circulation area) with more resources, many others do this because of their lack of training/skill/news sense, or the staff's priorities (for instance, a perception that their readers want "good news" over the negative).

* After the failed assassination attempt on RonaldReagan in 1981, News agencies across the United States reported that he had not been hit. This is perhaps the biggest example of misreporting a major news story in American history. [[http://youtu.be/-B9nVmQOlRU?t=3m58s Here]] you can see ABC News reporting that he wasn't wounded, and then ''seconds later'' the revelation that yes, he was. "The president has not been wounded...He was wounded? My god! The president was hit? [[BlatantLies He's in stable condition]], all this information!"
** They also misreported that he was in stable condition, when in actual fact, he was undergoing major, potentially life threatening surgery to remove the bullet at the time.

* In 2008, ''People'' magazine ran a cover story about EllenDegeneres getting married to Portia De Rossi. The story about American Michael Phelps being the first person EVER to win all 7 gold medals in swimming got a tiny little mention in the corner. An Op Ed later chewed them out for it.

* In an ''AmbushBug'' letter column, a reader suggested that the Daily Planet couldn't be such a great metropolitan newspaper if it kept running headlines like "SUPERMAN FOILS ALIEN GORILLA HOAX -- Presidential election results on page 32."

* In VideoGameHighSchool, a news segment about the president being kidnapped is interrupted with news about varsity captain of VGHS getting fragged in a pubstomp.

** To some extent, this can be explained as single big events being easier to report on than things which took place over months or years or decades.

* In volume 2 of ''Manga/TheDriftingClassroom'', the vanished school is mentioned in a news report. For those of you unfamiliar with ''The Drifting Classroom, it's a series about an entire school full of students and teachers, which one day suddenly disappears for no discernible reason. Obviously, this would receive lots of media attention, since it's a case of lots of possibly dead children as well as something seemingly scientifically impossible. But when it's mentioned in the news report in volume 2, the report about it begins with the words "In other news..." So apparently a scientifically impossible mass disappearance of children isn't as important as whatever it was that the TV news reported about before it.

* In volume 2 of ''Manga/TheDriftingClassroom'', the vanished school is mentioned in a news report. For those of you unfamiliar with ''The Drifting Classroom, it's a series about an entire school full of students and teachers, which one day suddenly disappears for no discernible reason. Obviously, this would receive lots of media attention, since it's a case of lots of possibly dead children as well as something seemingly scientifically impossible. But when it's mentioned in the news report in volume 2, the report about it begins with the words "In other news..." So apparently a scientifically impossible mass disappearance of children isn't as important as whatever the TV news reported about before it.

* George Carlin in the 60s, playing a news anchor making a commercial for the news in a half hour: "The sun did not come up this morning, huge cracks have appeared in the earth's surface, and big rocks are falling out of the sky. Details 25 minutes from now on Action Central News."

* ''TheGirlInGoldBoots''

* The inverted version is shown in the movie ''DogSoldiers'': The screen shows an article depicting the events of the film, only to quickly pan out, revealing it as a secondary story to the main headline (the result of an International Football match). To to uninformed, the secondary story is about the only survivor of a British soldier unit, who were attacked by Werewolves.

* ''JesusChristVampireHunter'' and "CRITICAL LESBIAN SHORTAGE".

* ''{{Sextette}}''. Apparently, the sex life and consummation of an 85-year-old woman with a 32-year-old Brit is ''front page news across the world'', instead of on ''Franchise/RipleysBelieveItOrNot'' or maybe ''FacesOfDeath''.
* Happens quite a bit in ''ItHappenedOneNight'', where Ellie Andrews' love life makes not only the front page of all the major New York papers, but is the ''top headline for every single one of them''.

* Related joke from ''{{Airplane}}!'':

* In ''TheGreatMuppetCaper'', Kermit and Fozzie, playing reporters, spend the opening number surrounded by a balloon crash, a jailbreak, and general mayhem culminating in a daring daylight jewel robbery. This last, which sets off the plot of the movie, is the cover story in every major paper - except Kermit and Fozzie's, which runs the headline "Identical Twins Join Chronicle Staff". Their editor is furious not only because of the huge missed story, but because Kermit and Fozzie don't even look alike.

* Spoofed in ''NationalLampoonsVacation'' where Chevy Chase is reading a newspaper with the headline: AMERICAN COUPLE MISSING AS JAPAN SLIDES INTO THE SEA.
* Apparently, in the {{Zombi|2}}verse (as seen in ''Film/Zombi3D''), reports of the ongoing zombie problem are more important for a music station to broadcast than is actual music.

Usually, the news judgment is so wildly overblown as to cause disconnection from the audience; you will rarely, if ever, see a LampshadeHanging pointing out this ridiculous fallacy.

Sometimes this will be used as a joke; the "main", plot-important story is used as the main headline, with an even more important story stuck in a corner. For example, in ''TheTrappedTrilogy'', one newspaper main headline was about a serial killer escaping. A smaller one was the ''second coming of Jesus Christ''.

* The "Climategate" controversy [[hottip:*:allegations that climate scientists had doctored or misrepresented politically important data, which later turned out to be false]] was kept off all but the most unsympathetic front pages by Tiger Woods' admission that he had engaged in marital infidelities. Of course, the affirmation of the data[[hottip:*: A scientist hired by the Koch brothers vouched for the validity of the claims, despite any doctoring that may have occurred]] was similarly ignored.

* The film ''[[Film/HarryPotter Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix]]'' not only averts this--a lot of the stuff would be important normally, but is often buried because of pressure from the Ministry of Magic--but makes the SpinningPaper trope ''work''.

* In ''HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'', Harry is lying down next to the window in order to hear the TV news to see if there is anything about mysterious disappearances or deaths, which would tell him that Voldemort is moving. Instead, he ends up hearing a newspiece about a bird that has learned water skiing in order to keep the heat away.

* ''{{Sextette}}''. Apparently, the sex life and consummation of an 85-year-old woman with a 32-year-old Brit is ''front page news across the world'', instead of on ''RipleysBelieveItOrNot'' or maybe ''FacesOfDeath''.

* The "Climategate" controversy [[hottip:*:allegations that climate scientists had doctored or misrepresented politically important data, which later turned out to be false]] was kept off all but the most unsympathetic front pages by Tiger Woods' admission that he had engaged in marital infidelities.

* A variant occurs in ''VideoGame/StarcraftII''. UNN reporter Kate Lockwell is interviewing the [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething Crown Prince]] while the Dominion is facing both an [[BugWar invasion by the Zerg]] and a rebellion... and anchor Kate Lockwell decides to ask him about his love life. Here, the bad news judgement is in the questions - any sane reporter would ask him about Raynor's rebellion, or the war with the Zerg. Ironically, it turns out that the prince has a crush on Kate herself. Also subverted, in that the prince then essentially answers the questions he should have been asked.

Usually, the news judgment is so wildly overblown as to cause disconnection from the audience; you will rarely, if ever, see a LampshadeHanging pointing out this ridiculous fallacy. (We'd all love to see a ''Series/{{CSI}}'' where Catherine gets a puzzled look on her face and said, "Hmm, how come the acquisition of this small Las Vegas accounting firm isn't stuck in the business briefs on D-12?")

* Mika Masuko, the SchoolNewspaperNewsHound in ''Anime/YesPrettyCure5'', has a tendency to put the story about the {{Bishonen}} she keeps running into as the top story. The story about the [[MagicalGirlWarrior five superpowered heroines fighting evil]] is far less prominent and more understated, if it appears at all.

* {{HLN}}. Critics contend this spin-off news network of {{CNN}} places heavy emphasis on events or items of little to no news value -- fluff human interest items, "MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome" cases and "humorous" police news, dubious medical/consumer news and/or advice, "fads," Hollywood/sports news and rumors, overblown coverage of certain criminal trials (e.g., Casey Anthony), and confrontational editorializing -- over serious investigative/watchdog journalism and commentary.

** This is TruthInTelevision at a lot of small-town Canadian papers. One newspaper in small-town Alberta had as its main story one day the breakage of some flowerpots on the main road under the screaming headline "DESPICABLE VANDALS STRIKE AGAIN". The date: September 12, 2001.
*** Not exactly, no. A smalltown community newspaper would not particularly be expected to be covering 9/11, or any other news at all that's happening outside its own town, in the first place. That's what the ''Calgary Herald'' and the ''Edmonton Journal'' and ''The Globe and Mail'' are for, not the ''Palookaville Weekly Shopper''.

* A former police officer being convicted of poisoning a customer is definitely newsworthy. However, the news article Gumshoe brings Phoenix in ''PhoenixWrightAceAttorney: Trials and Tribulations'' says absolutely nothing about the case and focuses on what a shoddy defense Phoenix gave her. [[spoiler: Of course it wasn't Phoenix at all, but Furio Tigre dressed as Phoenix.]]
** Although by this point Phoenix was a rather famous attorney who was well known for never [[spoiler: (well, almost never)]] losing a case and always managing to bring a turnabout despite the odds being stacked against him. According to in game dialog, Phoenix performed so unbelievably poorly that people were speculating that he was ''trying'' to get Maggey found guilty. [[spoiler: Which, he was. Or at least the guy pretending to be him at least.]] Less newsworthy headlines have made it onto [[RealityIsUnrealistic real front pages]] in real life about famous celebrities, even booting news stories about murders and the like to the 3rd or 4th page. So in reality, this is more realistic then it first seems.