Newsworthy?

My RSS feed for USA Today shows the second headline as Man opens fire in Philippines, kills 8, wounds 6.

That's obviously terrible for the people involved, but why exactly is that one of the world's top stories? Am I watching Fox?

When the butterfly lady and I arrived in Belize about 10 years ago, I was taken aback at the scene and scenery because I had somehow imagined Central America to be different from what I saw. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but it wasn't what I found when we got off the plane. I blame this partly on my own ignorance, but maybe a little bit more on my compatriots in the news business, who I relied on for my picture of the outside world.

Just look at Iraq: Is what you see in the mainstream press in accord with what you see when you find videos posted online by deployed soldiers, sailors and Marines? Well, no.

So, harumph in general and specific.