Outside the Beltway

OVERSHADOWED

James Joyner · Saturday, November 22, 2003 · 2 comments

Joseph Loconte points out something that I never realized:

Forty years ago today, as the world mourned the assassination of an American president, the passing of the 20th century’s most influential Christian writer was hardly noticed: Clive Staples Lewis, professor of English literature at Oxford and Cambridge, died on Nov. 22, 1963. In his ability to nurture the faithful, as well as seduce the skeptic, C. S. Lewis had no peer.

The rest of the piece is well worth reading. Lewis was a terrific writer. Indeed, even though I disagree with his conclusions, I cite many of his arguments in debating the merits of Christian theology.

What’s particularly fascinating to me is how much this illustrates the power of the news cycle. Comparatively minor events a congressman’s affair with an employee, the murder of a child beauty queen) can become huge news stories if they take place during slow news periods. Conversely, rather major stories can get buried if they coincide with a hot story.

One wonders, for example, what happened on September 11, 2001 and the week or so thereafter that virtually no one knows about. Newspapers come out every day, regardless of whether there is anything exciting to put in them. Ditto nightly newscasts and the 24 hour news channels. The airtime gets filled with something every day.

(Hat tip: Betsy Newmark)