Why Is a Stock Market Free Fall a Major News Story?

NPR's On the Media runs this week an excellent feature questioning why stock market downturns end up being the top story everywhere in the media. Media preoccupation with Wall Street, not only likely distracts us from other more important economic news, but mistakenly assumes that a rising stock market is good news for everybody.

More like this

Hypothetical: If you had to make do with just one source of news, what would it be? I don't mean which medium, either. Let's narrow it down to one outlet, one group of journalists operating under a collectively identity, working with a common set of standards and principles. Twenty years ago, I…
This week has seen the launch of a new health blog by the Wall Street Journal. While I don't hold the highly conservative views of the WSJ editorial pages, I have found the paper one of the best international sources of information on health trends in both conventional and alternative medicine.…
Under the fold.... What Makes People Vote Republican?: Not everyone who votes Republican has been 'duped'. Conservative ideals appeal to some because they reflect heartfelt visions of a 'good society. The Religious Right's Religious Right: One of the fascinating things about the Palin story to me…
Obama Calls for 'Common Sense' on Executive Pay: resident Obama announced on Wednesday a salary cap of $500,000 for top executives at companies that receive the largest amounts of money under the $700 billion federal bailout, calling the step an expression not only of fairness but of "basic common…

But surely the stock market is more important than 650,000 dead people in Iraq?