Maybe when Joe and Mary Sixpack compare the real world they live in with the consistently troubled, violent, sensationalized world the news media present to them day after day, they notice the obvious discrepancies.

A perfect example is crime coverage. If you relied only on newspaper front pages and TV news — as so many older suburbanites unfortunately do — you’d be afraid to go out of the house. —Bill Steigerwald —Real vs. media world (Tribune-Review)