Let’s face it, bad news sells. Clark Gable told Doris Day in the move Teachers Pet that newspapers exist to sell advertising. He could have added that bad news will cause more people to buy the newspapers to see the advertisements so the newspaper can charge more to run the advertisement.

This is not a modern phenomenon. In the Middle Ages, public hangings were the events that got everyone out and in ancient Rome it was the gladiator fights. Today we still have the Spanish bullfights, pity the poor bull.

Back to bad news. Why do we like to see bad things happen to other people? Why don’t we get better at celebrating good things? Could you imagine one of the major networks or talking heads devoting an entire evening to good news? And did you know there is enough good news to fill the entire evening?

Check out goodnewsnetwork.org.

Send me other sites you find devoted to happy things. Maybe we could start a new trend.