Modern American History, Chapter 14:   Development of the Interstate Highway System, begun under the auspices of the Eisenhower administration.  From a journalistic perspective, a "non-story" if ever there was one.  Quiet...incremental...playing out over a span of decades.

Apparently, the interstate highway system's role in the emergence of the New South had simply failed to enter into journalists' thought processes, as a result of its being such a non-story.

I had to wonder how often this sort of thing happens.

After all, aren't journalists almost by definition more immersed than the rest of us in a world of gripping headlines, big Name Brand Issues, and Megatrends?  How do we expect them to factor into their thinking the kinds of quieter, slower developments that have mostly escaped their profession's notice in the first place?

I realized I needed to change some standards:

When it came to those traditional year-end journalistic attempts to explain the events of the past twelve months, I would henceforth be a bit skeptical of them, unless they took into consideration at least one development that had never been news.

On the other hand, I would have a bit more confidence in my own ability to discern what was happening in the world around me, based on the simple, direct experiences of my own life.