There’s a really dumb story in the news right now. (You’re thinking, “Just one?”) Well … I have one in mind that I think is really dumb.

But what if I write a post about how dumb it is? I have no illusions about the effect of this blog, but to some very small degree that only makes the story “what people are talking about,” and therefore “news.”

This is an uncomfortable fact about the modern world.

Back when there was a small cadre of newscasters who controlled the public’s access to stories, they could exercise some taste and common sense and say “a story about [dumb thing] isn’t news.”

Now you have “what’s hot” on Alexa, and “most emailed” on the NYT, and “top searches” all over the place.

“This is what people are talking about! We need a story on that!”

No, you don’t.

That’s where niche publishing comes in. There’s obviously a market for niche stories about pension and benefits legislation, but there’s also a niche for news content that is selected and presented from a particular point of view. That means bias, of course — because the editor is deciding what’s worthy to be reported and what’s not — but … so what? Bias is unavoidable. Just be honest about it.

When the world is overflowing with content noise, content curation is the order of the day.