You make a very good point here, & something similar was pointed out on the radio
last night. They where talking about Uranium Mining in Northern Saskatchewan (Yes,
this will tie back to what you're stating :lol

. It has the approval of something like 81%
of the northern population, but....
They can have a meeting in a Northern community about the issue, & 100 people show
up. 99 are for it, and one guy shows up wearing a chicken suit and packing an air horn,
and who's the media going to focus on? To try to remain impartial when reporting, they'll
say, "
Some where for it, & some where against it." and who's going to end up on the news?
Most likely the guy in the chicken suit.
Then, as you pointed out above, we're in a 24hr/day news cycle....and that's got to be filled.
We are going to hear about the guy in the chicken suit (or the monkey in the Ikea, whatever)
until something comes along to replace it in the news cycle. Hell, the radio station I listen to
reports the news every 10 minutes on the 10's. New news doesn't happen every 10 minutes
on the 10's very often. ;-)
Thank you for say'n exactly what I'm try'n to say, in one sentence.