Why we hesr so little about Japan these days, from On The Media:
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Steve Coll covered his fair share of natural disaster and war in his decades as foreign correspondent at The Washington Post, and he found that there is a template for many stories, no matter how harrowing. In his experience, earthquake and disaster coverage, in general, follow a 12-day editorial cycle. He witnessed it while covering an earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people in Iran.
The first few days are spent reporting breaking news and casualties and destruction. Around day five, the late miracle story in which search teams find an improbable survivor amidst the rubble. Day seven brings the interpretation of meaning story, with religious overtones. By day 12, it’s essentially buh-bye for now.
STEVE COLL: Most correspondents run out of laundry or patience or their editors feel that the story is no longer getting on A-1 and so it would be better to invest in another subject. And the best way to create a sort of place-holding story was to write that, you know, to be sure, the recovery will take a long time and there will be many challenges ahead. So it’s a sort of forecasting story that also says, we’re not going to be here tomorrow.