History Main / IfItBleedsItLeads

* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': In the host's issue of ''Joker's Asylum'', the Joker takes over a studio broadcasting a live game show and threatens the contestants with his lethal prank gadgets if they answer the increasingly impossible questions wrong. In the control booth, the producer practically drools over the prospect of the huge ratings this will bring in and refuses to intervene to stop him, ''up to telling his assistant to stall the police''. But when one of the contestants gets a wrong answer, all that happens is that every single toy Joker uses is a perfectly normal novelty toy, so nobody's hurt. Much to the producer's horror, it turns out that the joke was actually on him; the Joker had wired the studio up to broadcast the audio from inside the control booth, meaning that his cynical, callous indifference to human life was [[EngineeredPublicConfession broadcast to all the viewers he'd been desperately trying to keep]]. [[WhatIsEvil Who's the real monster]]: the criminal madman threatening hostages, the cynical producers broadcasting it just for ratings, or [[YouBastard the people watching at home]]?

* {{Invoked|Trope}} by name by Creator/KelseyGrammer's character in ''15 Minutes''.

This mantra is deeply ingrained in journalistic norms. Newsworthiness is determined by several factors, and death/destruction fulfills many of them a lot better than news about society working its wonders another day. Also, because getting information on them is easy (through the police or government agencies via press releases) and since they take place on public streets where permits or business permission are never required to film near, they are generally rather cheap to cover. They also tend to provide flashy visuals. As a result of all this, AccentuateTheNegative tends to be in full effect at many news desks. Just look at your average day's worth of coverage from Creator/{{CNN}}, Creator/{{Fox News|Channel}} or your nightly NewsBroadcast and count the number of stories (or rather, the amount of coverage) given to good news rather than disaster and criticism.

* Speaking of Florida, UsefulNotes/{{Miami}} is full of this style of newscast (partially because Miami has a ''lot'' of crime). WSVN-7, the area's Creator/{{Fox}} stations, is ''the'' reason for it. After they lost Creator/{{NBC}} in 1989 following a mini-DisasterDominoes situation (which would precede the New World-Fox deal that caused an even bigger mess a few years after), people expected that, as an independent (they had Fox even then, but Fox's programming was only one or two nights a week at the time, so they were basically independent -- the station even said as much in the lead-up), they would cut back their news operation to the bare-bones, like many other indie stations at the time. Instead, they poured their resources into their news operation (keeping all their existing newscasts and adding more) -- [[ItWillNeverCatchOn a move that was seen by many as being stupid]], since [[https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1988-09-13-8802220537-story.html WSVN had always been stuck in third place ratings-wise]] (one of the reasons NBC had left). But because of news director Joel Cheatwood opting to go in a DarkerAndEdgier direction, with more violent and crime-related stories leading newscasts, [[LargeHamAnnouncer Scott Chapin's growly, over-dramatic voiceovers]], [[TwoDVisualsThreeDEffects slick, yet dark-colored 3D graphics]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vAMmrJgxvE loud, blaring techno music]] and [[SceneryPorn the massive "Newsplex" newsroom looming behind the anchors]]. [[AndYouThoughtItWouldFail It definitely worked out, and WSVN continues to dominate the ratings in South Florida.]] Because of this, [[FollowTheLeader the other stations in the area began to sensationalize their own newscasts]], and other stations around the country and the world followed WSVN's lead. Their style was a major influence upon other Fox stations that produced their own news, and the infamous Creator/FoxNewsChannel.

* A lot of Music/MarilynManson's earlier material is based around this trope. It goes all the way to the band's name, taken from media icons Creator/MarilynMonroe and UsefulNotes/CharlesManson; the stage names of the individual members were each composed of the first name of a popular actress or female figure and the last name of a SerialKiller.[[note]]They included Daisy Berkowitz (Daisy Duke from ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard'' and David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz), Gidget Gein (surfer girl Gidget from the '60s TV series and Ed Gein), Olivia Newton Bundy (Olivia Newton-John and Ted Bundy), Madonna Wayne Gacy (Music/{{Madonna}} and John Wayne Gacy), Sara Lee Lucas (the Sara Lee food company and Henry Lee Lucas), Twiggy Ramirez (English supermodel Twiggy and "Night Stalker" Richard Ramirez) and [[FaceOfTheBand the titular Marilyn Manson]].[[/note]]

->''"I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to blow my brains out right on this program a week from today. So, tune in next Tuesday. That'll give the public relations people a week to promote the show, and we ought to get a hell of a rating with that."''

* ''Film/ThePedestrian'': A newspaper has a big story, an expose of industrialist Heinz Linge as a Nazi war criminal, all lined up. But when they get a story about two people stabbing each other over a parking space, complete with gory picture, the Linge story is pushed to page 3.

[[folder:Film]]

-->"What sells newspapers?"
-->"Crime... tragedy... violence..."
-->"Well then, we'll just have to start a ''[[GangWar war]]''."

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

* In ''Fanfic/KimiNoNaIowa'', one of the gripes of various characters is that the greater world quickly forgot about Imamura's troubles because a small town in the middle of nowhere disappearing due to a fatality-free disaster just doesn't get media attention. One mention outright states "no bleeding so it’s not surprising that it didn’t lead".

'''Heather:''' ''[as she's being stabbed to death]'' Lots of... pain! Gail, please help me!

* [[https://youtu.be/A281Do6HqZo Channel 5: The Musical]] aka "Channel 5 News" by comedian Creator/BoBurnham satirizes the media's focus on entertainment over news.

* "Dirty Laundry" by [[Music/{{Eagles}} Don Henley]] is a biting take on this, and still relevant (although undercut somewhat by the events that inspired it -- Henley's 1980 arrest on charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and drug possession).
** Can we film the operation? Is the head dead yet?
* Music/{{Tool}} calls out the media and their audiences for this in "Vicarious."
--> I need to watch things die from a good, safe distance \\
Vicariously I live while the whole world dies \\
You all feel the same, so \\
Why can't we just admit it?
* A lot of Music/MarilynManson's earlier material is based around this trope. It goes all the way to the band's name, taken from media icons Creator/MarilynMonroe and UsefulNotes/CharlesManson; the stage names of the individual members were each composed of the first name of a popular actress or female figure and the last name of a SerialKiller.[[note]]They included Daisy Berkowitz (Daisy Duke from ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard'' and David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz), Gidget Gein (surfer girl Gidget from the '60s TV series and Ed Gein), Olivia Newton Bundy (Olivia Newton-John and Ted Bundy), Madonna Wayne Gacy (Music/{{Madonna}} and John Wayne Gacy), Sara Lee Lucas (the Sara Lee food company and Henry Lee Lucas), Twiggy Ramirez (English supermodel Twiggy and "Night Stalker" Richard Ramirez) and [[FaceOfTheBand the titular Marilyn Manson]].[[/note]]

--> One must see all the truth on T.V. \\
Some hotel burning \\
Airliner crash \\
Or another Vietnam \\

* The music video for Music/{{Rammstein}}'s "Ich Will" satirizes this trope by having the band portray people literally [[BankRobbery robbing a bank]] for media attention rather than money, and the journalists [[MediaScrum assaulting them with questions]] as if they were politicians or celebrities. It works so well for them that the video [[BookEnds starts and ends]] on them receiving a Golden Camera award for the robbery.
* “Disco’s Out, Murder’s In” by Music/SuicidalTendencies is all about this.
* "Shoot 'Em Up" by Music/BlueStahli is about the media's tendency to treat mass murderers like celebrities. Bret wrote the song out of his disgust at seeing Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the cover of ''Magazine/RollingStone''.
-->It doesn't matter if you disagree\\
We're makin' it hand over fist on tragedy\\
The revolution will be televised\\
But just the part that we can monetize\\
That's the way, that's the way\\
You gotta give 'em all a show
* Referenced in Music/WeirdAlYankovic's "Nature Trail To Hell" with a comparison to the sort of SlasherMovie parodied in the song ("...If you like the six o'clock news / Then you'll love ''Nature Trail To Hell''...")
* Referenced by name at the beginning of Music/{{Delain}}'s ''The Glory and the Scum'' ("We all live in unforgiving precarious ways / If it bleeds it leads is all we seem to hear today")

-->''Horror movie and there's no reviews''
-->''Horror movie, [[WhamLine it's the six-thirty news]]''.
* The album cover of Samba composer Fernando Pellon's 1983 album ''[[https://www.discogs.com/release/4504194-Fernando-Pellon-Cadáver-Pega-Fogo-Durante-O-Velório/ Cadáver Pega Fogo Durante O Velório]]''[[labelnote:*]]"Corpse Bursts Into Flames During Funeral"[[/labelnote]] parodies this sort of paper, with the cover being designed in the style of a newspaper, with sensationalist headlines peppered all over. Some examples of them, translated:
-->"Decapitated her husband"
-->"Castrated his rival 19 years later"
-->"Killed his family and blew up the house"
-->"Slept for 70 hours with his loved one's corpse"
-->"Man hijacks bus at Cascadura to show his ex-girlfriend how macho he is"
-->"Crazy, half-naked, threw herself off the eighth floor because her fiancée wouldn't buy her weed to smoke"

* In ''Theatre/StreetScene'', Kaplan complains that the newspapers cover "notting but deevorce, skendal, and moiders." When [[spoiler:Mrs. Maurrant and Sankey]] are murdered, a tabloid printed the same day depicts their last moments in a lurid "composograph" picture.
* In Menotti's opera ''The Saint of Bleecker Street'', Maria Corona, commenting on the melodramatic murder reporting of the Italian papers, jokes that she'd have to kill someone to get her picture in the papers.

* In the video game adaptation of ''World's Wildest Police Videos'', one mission has you trying to not only catch a crook but also evade a persistent news van that's trying to get footage of the stakeout.
* During the "Hot Fuzz" side missions in ''VideoGame/SaintsRow2'', the cameraman tagging along with you will occasionally quote this trope while you're driving.

* The beginning of [[http://www.dorktower.com/2012/08/06/curiositous-dork-tower-06-08-12/ this]] Webcomic/DorkTower strip: “In the news: hate, violence, anger, hate, violence, violence, violence…”

* Satirized by ''Website/TheOnion'', along with MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome, in [[http://www.theonion.com/video/missing-girl-probably-raped,14164/ "Missing Girl Probably Raped."]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' episode [[Recap/JusticeLeagueS2E21And22WildCards "Wild Cards"]], the Joker broadcasts a threat to blow up the Vegas Strip unless the Justice League can stop him. As the drama plays out, other news broadcasters pick up the Joker's show... which feeds into his real plan to expose millions of viewers to Ace's [[BrownNote insanity-inducing gaze]].
* In the ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' episode "Gone With the Windstorm", Nancy's news agency seemed more interested in broadcasting her near-death experience covering a forest fire than showing any concern for her well-being. When they find out their news van was on fire, a technician at the station was begging for the camera to show the burning van. When it is seen exploding on camera, the crew cheers.

--> '''Reporter''': Did anyone ever save a newspaper with the headline "President NOT Shot"?

* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': In the host's issue of ''Joker's Asylum'', the Joker takes over a studio broadcasting a live game show and threatens the contestants with his lethal prank gadgets if they answer the increasingly impossible questions wrong. In the control booth, the producer practically drools over the prospect of the huge ratings this will bring in and refuses to intervene to stop him, ''up to telling his assistant to stall the police''. But when one of the contestants gets a wrong answer, all that happens is that every single toy Joker uses is a perfectly normal novelty toy, so nobody's hurt. Much to the producer's horror, it turns out that the joke was actually on him; the Joker had wired the studio up to broadcast the audio from inside the control booth, meaning that his cynical, callous indifference to human life was [[EngineeredPublicConfession broadcast to all the viewers he'd been desperately trying to keep]]. Who's the real monster: the criminal madman threatening hostages, the cynical producers broadcasting it just for ratings, or [[YouBastard the people watching at home]]?

A basic fact in the news media is that, if a story involves a brutal death or injury of some kind (or the likelihood of it), it is likely to get higher ratings. The more lurid the story, the better its chances of being the ratings leader. Natural disasters, {{bank robber|y}}ies, shootouts, [[RapeAsDrama rapes]], {{serial killer}}s, GangBangers, [[AxesAtSchool school violence]], and animal maulings all draw an army of news vans the same way that a limping gazelle draws a pride of lions, except [[{{Dissimile}} the gazelle is already dead and the lions are broadcasting images of its dead body to thousands, if not millions]]. By doing so, the news media are following a decades-old mantra: [[TitleDrop "if it bleeds, it leads!"]]

* ''ComicBook/Daredevil'': During the '90s, ComicBook/TheKingpin momentarily set up his own news business when he found too many of New York's preexisting ones refusing to kowtow to him. As he runs it by a lieutenant:

* In the host's issue of ''Joker's Asylum'', ComicBook/TheJoker takes over a studio broadcasting a live game show and threatens the contestants with his lethal prank gadgets if they answer the increasingly impossible questions wrong. In the control booth, the producer practically drools over the prospect of the huge ratings this will bring in and refuses to intervene to stop him, ''up to telling his assistant to stall the police''. But when one of the contestants gets a wrong answer, all that happens is that every single toy Joker uses is a perfectly normal novelty toy, so nobody's hurt. Much to the producer's horror, it turns out that the joke was actually on him; the Joker had wired the studio up to broadcast the audio from inside the control booth, meaning that his cynical, callous indifference to human life was [[EngineeredPublicConfession broadcast to all the viewers he'd been desperately trying to keep]]. Who's the real monster: the criminal madman threatening hostages, the cynical producers broadcasting it just for ratings, or [[YouBastard the people watching at home]]?

[[folder:Fanfic]]
* In ''FanFic/TwistedFates'', this is what {{Jerkass}} {{Paparazzi}} Reynard claims has got him going after the Twister case, [[spoiler:although his true reason seems to be much more [[ItsPersonal personal]].]]

* ''Film/NaturalBornKillers'' is a ruthless satire of this trope, focusing on a pair of [[OutlawCouple Bonnie and Clyde-esque spree killers]] who engage in their crimes in order to get media attention.
* ''Film/ThePedestrian'': A newspaper has a big story, an expose of industrialist Heinz Linge as a Nazi war criminal, all lined up. But when they get a story about two people stabbing each other over a parking space, complete with gory picture, the Linge story is pushed to page 3.

* The ''Film/{{Scream}}'' franchise:
** In ''Film/Scream1996'', this trope is personified with Gale Weathers, a tabloid reporter who cashed in on the murder of Sidney's mother by writing a bestselling book detailing her alternative theory of the case. In a subversion, [[spoiler:it turns out that she was right, and that the accused killer Cotton Weary was innocent]]. Doesn't stop her from coming off like a sleazeball, though [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold she does get better]] in the sequels.
** The reporter played by Linda Blair, is if anything worse:
-->"Sidney, how does it feel to be almost brutally butchered? People want to know. They have a right to know! How does it feel?"
** In ''Film/Scream2'', the killer [[spoiler:(at least, one of them)]] planned on invoking this in order to get himself media publicity and a sensational trial. [[spoiler:The other killer, whose motivations were more [[MamaBear personal]], mocks his motivation as a product of TheNineties before she shoots him.]]
** ''Film/Scream4'''s killer had a similar motivation. [[spoiler:Jill would kill a bunch of people, then pin the murders on someone else and become the FinalGirl in her own real-life slasher flick, riding it to [[FifteenMinutesOfFame book deals and TV appearances]] much like her older cousin Sidney had done.]]
** Also in ''Scream 4'', we have the publicist version in Rebecca. When the killings get going, she's ecstatic as they will drive up the sales of Sidney's book. Sidney, traumatized by constantly being targeted by psychotic killers ''and'' trying to help her younger cousin whose friend was just killed, is not amused.
-->Two girls butchered. Payday. I was so not feeling Woodsboro. I was like, "Lame PR move." Well, fuck me now. Best. Idea. Ever."
* ''Film/ScaryMovie'':
** Gail Halestorm in the first movie is a parody of the aforementioned Gale Weathers, a reporter for ''Hard Cover'' (a parody of ''Hard Copy'') who wrote a book called ''You're Dead, I'm Rich'' and heads to the MakeOutPoint in the explicit hopes of filming somebody getting stabbed to death.
-->'''Gale:''' Heather, Heather, can you tell us what you're feeling?\\
'''Heather:''' ''<as she's being stabbed to death>'' Lots of... pain! Gail, please help me!
** Averted by the Black News van, who only briefly touch on the story then get the hell out of Dodge, since a pretty white woman just died and they're not sticking around to be accused of the crime (or maybe [[BlackDudeDiesFirst become the next victim]]).
** Purposely averted by the news station seen in ''Film/ScaryMovie 3''. Despite the reporter Cindy Campbell urging them to cover the story of the killer videotape in which viewers are brutally murdered by a scary woman seven days after watching it, the station is only interested in covering fluff stories and stuff like breast implants. Then, once they finally become convinced of the tape's existence, they choose to ''play'' it.

* In Music/RobZombie's ''Film/HalloweenII2009'', Dr. Loomis has become like this, writing a best-selling book about the killings from [[Film/Halloween2007 the first film]] while making a killing himself.
* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by name by Creator/KelseyGrammer's character in ''15 Minutes''.
* This is definitely the belief of Elliot Carver, the media mogul villain (and [[WildMassGuessing alleged]] UsefulNotes/RupertMurdoch {{expy}}) of the James Bond film ''Film/TomorrowNeverDies'', to the point that his men actually sink a Royal Navy warship and SinkTheLifeboats[[note]]Necessary for the plot to work because they had to LeaveNoWitnesses, but milked for all the moral outrage it's worth anyway[[/note]], steal a nuclear weapon (to aim at China) and bring NATO and the Chinese to the brink of war, all for the sake of having a good war to report on; it is strongly implied that he masterminds numerous other crimes and catastrophes for the sake of his business as well solely so that his outlet can get the story first, up to and including the hit he takes out on ''his own wife'' in retaliation for her adultery. In his own words:
--> Elliot Carver: There's no news... like bad news.
* ''Film/TheNightFlier'': This is the entire tactic of the tabloid magazine ''Inside View''. The gorier and grislier the crimes they report are, the more issues it will sell. At one point the editor boasts that [[{{Jerkass}} he hopes the mystery killer claims more victims]].

* Discussed fairly heavily by Andrew in ''Film/{{Monsters|2010}}'' after Samantha asks him whether he's bothered by the fact that he profits from tragedy.
-->'''Andrew''': Do you know how much your father's company pays for a picture of a child killed by a creature? $50,000. Do you know how much money I get paid for a picture of a happy child? Nothing. [[RuleOfThree Do you know]] where that puts me? Photographing tragedy.
* The film ''[=#Horror=]'' has [[NewMediaAreEvil a social media version of this]]. [[spoiler:Cat White, the EnfantTerrible villain, murdered her friends in cold blood in order to become internet-famous.]]
* The 2016 film ''Film/{{Christine|2016}}'' is a dramatization of the last days of TV news reporter Christine Chubbuck, who is described in more detail below. In the movie, Michael, the manager at Christine's station cites this trope word-for-word when urging his reporting staff to get him juicier stories. Christine, who wants to focus on human-interest pieces, insists to Michael that what he wants is exploitative, to which he replies that the public she's concerned about are the avid consumers of these stories -- she says that they as reporters should know better than the public, but he deems her attitude "superior". She eventually sits Michael down and seemingly reconciles with him, happily agreeing that his method of "sensationalizing the news" is the only way to get ratings and keep the station afloat. During the following broadcast, she announces that in keeping with the station's policy of presenting "the most immediate and complete reports of local blood and guts", viewers will now see "what is believed to be a television first. In living color, an exclusive coverage of an attempted suicide." Christine then pulls out her revolver and shoots herself in the head. In the aftermath of the immediate panic, Michael reads from her desk notes and sees that she wrote out the script for the reporter who would take over for her after she was taken to the hospital, detailing her attempted suicide and current "critical" condition -- [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone clearly disturbed,]] he has to be asked multiple times by a police officer not to touch anything at the crime scene.
* One of the villains in ''Film/SharkNight'' invokes the popularity of Shark Week on the Creator/DiscoveryChannel as proof that there is a market for his SnuffFilm operation, in which he feeds people to [[ThreateningShark sharks]].
* In ''Film/{{Indigenous}}'', the news chopper locates one of the survivors, Elena, but doesn't land because they're milking the exclusive footage. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, the chupacabra catch up to Elena]]. The live footage is part of what breaks the masquerade.

* In ''Film/AprilShowers'', the news media are all over the place in the immediate aftermath of the school shooting (they show up at an area where the injured are being treated and loaded onto ambulances moments after some of the students who just escaped the school do). One reporter asks his cameraman "Did you get it?" with a smile, referring to a wounded student lying on the ground surrounded by friends.
* ''Film/ThePublicEye'' (1992). Creator/JoePesci plays Bernzy, a 1940's tabloid photographer. At one point someone mentions that guys like him always carry a pin in case they find an abandoned baby. They stick the baby with the pin before taking the picture because the newspapers pay extra for pictures of crying babies.

* ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'': Murder x 4: Steve tells the assassin, who is terminally ill, that his death by a SWAT sniper will be broadcast on live television by 8 news reporters.

[[caption-width-right:350:Wait a minute, what lunatic photographed this?!]]

* The "Summer of the Shark" in 2001 is often cited whenever this trope is brought up. During the summer of 2001, the media became focused on [[ThreateningShark shark attacks]], reporting what it saw as an "epidemic" of such instances. In reality, there were fewer shark attacks that year than there were the year before, or in 1995 -- it's just that those two years had, respectively, a Presidential election and [[MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome the OJ Simpson trial]] to capture the media's attention. And then there was [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror a bigger fish to fry]] that following autumn which killed off the shark panic.

* The "Summer of the Shark" in 2001 is often cited whenever this trope is brought up. During the summer of 2001, the media became focused on [[ThreateningShark shark attacks]], reporting what it saw as an "epidemic" of such instances. In reality, there were fewer shark attacks that year than there were the year before, or in 1995 -- it's just that those two years had, respectively, a Presidential election and [[MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome the OJ Simpson trial]] to capture the media's attention.

* The "Summer of the Shark" in 2001 is often cited whenever this trope is brought up. During the summer of 2001, the media became focused on [[EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks shark attacks]], reporting what it saw as an "epidemic" of such instances. In reality, there were fewer shark attacks that year than there were the year before, or in 1995 -- it's just that those two years had, respectively, a Presidential election and [[MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome the OJ Simpson trial]] to capture the media's attention.

* The 2016 film ''Film/{{Christine|2016}}'' is a dramatization of the last days of TV news reporter Christine Chubbuck, who is described in more detail below. In the movie, Michael, the manager at Christine's station cites this trope word-for-word when urging his reporting staff to get him juicier stories. Christine, who wants to focus on human-interest pieces, insists to Michael that what he wants is exploitative, to which he replies that the public she's concerned about are the avid consumers of these stories -- he says that they as reporters should know better than the public, but he deems her attitude "superior". She eventually sits Michael down and seemingly reconciles with him, happily agreeing that his method of "sensationalizing the news" is the only way to get ratings and keep the station afloat. During the following broadcast, she announces that in keeping with the station's policy of presenting "the most immediate and complete reports of local blood and guts", viewers will now see "what is believed to be a television first. In living color, an exclusive coverage of an attempted suicide." Christine then pulls out her revolver and shoots herself in the head. In the aftermath of the immediate panic, Michael reads from her desk notes and sees that she wrote out the script for the reporter who would take over for her after she was taken to the hospital, detailing her attempted suicide and current "critical" condition -- [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone clearly disturbed,]] he has to be asked multiple times by a police officer not to touch anything at the crime scene.

* The 2016 film ''Film/{{Christine|2016}}'' is a dramatization of the last days of TV news reporter Christine Chubbuck, who is described in more detail below. In the movie, Michael, the manager at Christine's station cites this trope word-for-word when urging his reporting staff to get him juicier stories. Christine, who wants to focus on human-interest pieces, insists to Michael that what he wants is exploitative, to which he replies that the public she's concerned about are the avid consumers of these stories -- he says that they as reporters should know better than the public, but he deems her attitude "superior". She eventually sits Michael down and seemingly reconciles with him, happily agreeing that his method of "sensationalizing the news" is the only way to get ratings and keep the station afloat. During the following news broadcast, she announces that in keeping with the station's policy of presenting "the most immediate and complete reports of local blood and guts", viewers will now see "what is believed to be a television first. In living color, an exclusive coverage of an attempted suicide." Christine then pulls out her revolver and shoots herself in the head. In the aftermath of the immediate panic, Michael reads from her desk notes and sees that she wrote out the script for the reporter who would take over for her after she was taken to the hospital, detailing her attempted suicide and current "critical" condition -- [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone clearly disturbed,]] he has to be asked multiple times by a police officer not to touch anything at the crime scene.

* The 2016 film ''Film/{{Christine|2016}}'' is a dramatization of the last days of TV news reporter Christine Chubbuck, who is described in more detail below. In the movie, Michael, the manager at Christine's station cites this trope word-for-word when urging his reporting staff to get him juicier stories. Christine, who wants to focus on human-interest pieces, insists to Michael that what he wants is exploitative, to which he replies that the public she's concerned about are the avid consumers of these stories -- he says that they as reporters should know better than the public, but he deems her attitude "superior". She eventually sits Michael down and seemingly reconciles with him, agreeing that his method of "sensationalizing the news" is the only way to get ratings -- during the following news broadcast, she announces that in keeping with the station's policy of presenting "the most immediate and complete reports of local blood and guts", viewers will now see "what is believed to be a television first. In living color, an exclusive coverage of an attempted suicide." Christine then pulls out her revolver and shoots herself in the head. In the aftermath of the immediate panic, Michael reads from her desk notes and sees that she wrote out the script for the reporter who would take over for her after she was taken to the hospital, detailing her attempted suicide and current "critical" condition -- [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone clearly disturbed,]] he has to be asked multiple times by a police officer not to touch anything at the crime scene.

* The 2016 film ''Film/{{Christine|2016}}'' is a dramatization of the last days of TV news reporter Christine Chubbuck, who is described in more detail below. In the movie, the manager at Christine's station cites this trope word-for-word when urging his reporting staff to get him juicier stories.

* ''Film/NorthFace'' offers a fairly stark take on it from a reporter: "You either need a glorious triumph or a horrible tragedy. An unspectacular retreat [from the mountain the main characters are trying to climb] is nothing more than a few lines on page 3." (The movie is a KillEmAll, so [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor he gets his horrible tragedy]].)

The entire reason why MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome exists, as well as the reason why the crimes on most CrimeAndPunishmentSeries are AlwaysMurder. The ImmoralJournalist is typically one of the most ardent believers in this concept. Compare MediaScaremongering, CouldThisHappenToYou. Contrast HumanInterestStory. When used in fiction, it's often a sign that the news outlet indulging in it is a StrawmanNewsMedia. Has nothing to do with actual trails of blood...

* [[SelfDemonstratingArticle Show of hands]] - how many Tropers, when reading the Real Life section, ''[[JustifiedTrope looked up]]'' the case via Website/{{Google}} or Wiki/ThatOtherWiki? Whether it's genuine curiosity or BileFascination, this trope ''is'' TruthInTelevision.