For those who say we only report "the negative"

here's an uplifting, tremendously sweet story I wrote for today's paper. It's about a group of Pacific Grove Middle School students raising fund for Rwandan orphans and connecting with them via Skype. If you missed it, you can access it here. It was a sight to see: the Rwandan children excitedly showing their Pacific Grove benefactors their humble home, the Pacific Grove children sweetly singing in Kinyarwanda. I should have brought my video camera.

Also, in today's electronic edition of the newspaper, some really horrendous news. An 11-year-old girl was sexually abused and ended up pregnant as a result.

Now guess which story has been the most viewed -- the happy story of Pacific Grove humanitarians, or the horrific story about the 11-year-old?

You probably guessed correctly. It's right there on the home page of the Herald, a top of the "most viewed" news for the past 12 hours. Or more.

Maybe I'm naive, but I've been noticing this for quite some time: we write "positive" news almost as often as "negative" ones. Sadly, the "negative" is more eye-catching, more memorable. Not surprisingly, we reporters get blamed for it more often.