Can reporting too much of the bad stuff actually create more bad stuff?
People buy perceptions. Malcolm Gladwell did a great job of illustrating this in his book Tipping Point when he described the role of graffiti cleaning action in combating the crime wave in New York back in the 1980s. It was, by all accounts, a matter of focusing on perceptions that the NYC chose as the way of creating a feeling of more security and crime-rate reduction in what was becoming an unlivable city, full of fearful residents.
More importantly, the strategy was successful. By choosing a few variables to focus on, and creating the perception that things were improving (among other things, graffiti were disappearing from public places and metro carriages as fast as they were appearing indicating that the city was winning the 'war'), things really improved.
If this sounds like a bit of new-age mambo-jumbo, think again. The role of perceptions in collective human psychology is a powerful one. Public relations practitioners understand this well. As do companies, organisations and individuals that use them to support whatever ends they want.