Is it the news media or are the media giving us what we want....

I agree that the media (especially tv) go for the extreme, the gruesome. But that is what sells. When there is an auto accident.....people gather round to gawk.

And it isn't anything new. When I was 10 my older sister was in a horrible auto accident. There was a photo in the newspaper the next day. There she is...15 years old....on a stretcher....covered in blood from a head injury and in terrible pain from a broken back and pelvis...and there is a woman standing over her looking at her. With her is a little girl with long blonde pig tails...also looking at her. Paramedics are there. There is no reason for that woman and child to be there -- except to "see".

And as there are more and more choices in televised news...they need to give the viewers whatever will keep them coming back to watch. So which is the horse and which is the cart?