"The Relentless Negativity of Financial Journalism"

Last Sunday night my wife and I went out to dinner with my parents, continuing an annual birthday tradition that we all look forward to each year. During the dinner, my parents explained to me that they were awoken early that morning by a loud noise coming from the sky. There was a aircraft that had just departed from Columbus Airport, and just as it made it over my parents house it happen to hit a flock of geese, resulting in one engine burning out, and causing the loud noise. Fortunately, the plane managed to circle back to CMH and landed safely without any injuries.  Later that evening my wife and I noticed that this event made the national news.  
 
According to the FAA, there’s an average daily volume of arrivals and departures totaling 45,000. As scary as that may have been for the crew and passengers of last Sundays flight, this was one flight out of about 45,000. Which means that the other 44,999 arrived and departed safely (though if you’ve traveled lately, doubtfully on time!). The news, of course, makes no mention of these.
 
It’s the medias job to draw viewers with the spectacular occurrences, even if not the norm. The financial media is especially guilty of this. One of my favorite authors, Nick Murray, discuses this brilliantly in the article below. It’s a one pager that takes about 5 minutes to read, and I would urge you to do so. If you understand the motivation behind the news, it will make you a better investor!

Source for article image: Nick Murray Newsletters

Source for: flight stat