Have you ever heard the widely used television mantra, "If It Bleeds, It Leads?" In other words, a story featuring gore, police, fire trucks or whatever is always going to be the lead over something as mundane as a "mere" drag race. That's sad to say, but unfortunately true.
If you doubt that, tune in your local news, and I'll wager every station you flip through opens their nightly telecast with something sensational, and the better the visuals, the more it's going to get the lead position.
It's the same with newspapers. Someone could come up with a cure for cancer tonight, but in tomorrow's USA Today the story might appear below the fold, underneath an earthquake/flood/typhoon/Hollywood scandal story.
Reporters are supposed to write factually, and most do. Unfortunately, when their stories hit the editor's desk is where the trouble often starts. Newspapers are desperate for circulation and in the print world a sensational headline also "helps," and believe me, those people could care less that their headline was a negative for drag racing. All they care about is selling newspapers.
Skipping the far too many headlines I've seen over the years involving racing fatalities, my all-time favorite came from the Indianapolis Star back in the 70s, reading (I saved it!), "Unruly Drag Fans Subdued By Tear Gas."
There was no coverage of the racing that day...
Jon Asher
Senior Editor
CompetitionPlus.com
