I agree with GUEST, to a point, but honestly, I think there are some crimes (and accidents) that people would try harder to prevent if they were given more publicity. Case in point: juvenile suicide.

My wife is a teacher. (She's an elementary music teacher, and has hundreds of students, and doesn't usually get to know much about their personal lives.) One of her students shot himself in the head. He even told some of his friends at school he was going to do it, but they evidently didn't believe him, or didn't know what to do about it. My wife got the news at home by phone from the principal. We turned on the TV. There was a mobile news crew in front of the kid's house. The reporter said, "We have just learned there has been a shooting at such-and-such block of so-and-so street. Not much is known at this time. Stay tuned for details at 10 p.m." We watched at 10 p.m. and there were NO details—the "shooting" wasn't even mentioned again. Why? Because the TV station had learned by then that it was a juvenile suicide. It wasn't in the newspapers either. There was the standard paid death notice, but the cause of death wasn't mentioned.

They figure this kid was imitating an older cousin who had recently committed suicide. He did it with his father's handgun. The gun was locked up and the parents THOUGHT the boy didn't know where the key was hidden, but he did. I don't remember his age, but he had to be twelve or under, and I seem to recall he was MUCH under, maybe eight or so.

They had grief counselors at school the next day, the whole bit. But nothing in the media. The media HAD to know about it. They all have reporters that routinely go over police reports. But they declined to report it.

Maybe they have a general policy that suicides aren't considered newsworthy, unless they happen to people who are already famous, or unless bystanders are endangered, whatever. Maybe they were just being considerate of the family. But I think there is an issue here that people need to know about.

Ironically, if the kid had brought the gun to school and shot one other person instead of himself, it would have been national news. But would it have been any more of a tragedy?